


The Shadehand Compass

by Electronic_Ink



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-01
Updated: 2017-11-12
Packaged: 2018-12-09 18:07:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 34
Words: 126,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11674353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Electronic_Ink/pseuds/Electronic_Ink
Summary: When Link of the Kokiri rescued a girl from death, he never imagined that he might have just set in motion a disaster that might destroy all of Hyrule. Forced from his home into a desperate race against time, Link must reclaim his rightful place in the eternal ballad of the Goddesses and find within himself what it truly means to be a hero.





	1. I Apparently Doom the Universe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Link's brought a _Hylian_ into the Kokiri Forest. And that's not an everyday occurrence.

**Prologue**

_Impa had always protected the princess._

_As the carriage rattled on over the sandy ground, the Sheikah woman let her scarlet eyes settle on the young heir to the Hylian throne, innocently asleep against the window. Her mouth was slightly open, and she made an incomprehensible sound. Who knew what she was dreaming? Impa knew better than anyone that only a fool interrupted the princess’ dreams. The thin fingers with their painted nails closed tighter on the flat, wide box in the girl’s lap, admittedly not the most inconspicuous of concealments; a garish blue embellished with golden clasps and the crest of the royal family._

_As the carriage went over another large bump, Impa grabbed her naginata’s handle, stopping the weapon from sliding off of her lap. The polishing cloth that Impa had been using moments before fell to the floor, and Impa muttered a hushed curse as she stooped to retrieve it. When she straightened, the princess’ eyes were open and looking right at her._

_“Good evening, my dear,” Impa said fondly, snapping her fingers. The naginata dissolved into shadows, melting into the angular shapes cast by the edges of the windows. The soft lavender light marked Impa’s favourite time of day; the time between light and shadow, when she could almost feel someone sitting beside her and watching the sunset with her. The life of a Sheikah was a lonely one. Not many still lived: she knew of only three others. Four, if she counted the king’s old guardian, her predecessor, who had died many years before._

_“Impa,” the princess said._

_“Yes, Zelda?” Impa looked into Zelda’s blue eyes._

_“How long until we get there?”_

_“There will be another hour yet, at least, provided we are not stopped.”_

_Zelda sighed. “I’ll go back to sleep then, I suppose,” she said, closing her eyes and curling into the window, the box in between the side of the carriage and her legs. Impa nodded and looked out the window once again, the sky turning navy blue over the dusty landscape. A Wolfos poked its head out of a den, and Impa watched as her cubs followed her into the night air._

_“Impa,” Zelda said suddenly. Impa flinched and went to manifest her naginata before realising that Zelda appeared calm. “You okay?”_

_“Yes, my dear,” sighed Impa. “You startled me, that is all. What is it, Zelda?”_

_“I can’t sleep. Will you sing to me?”_

_Impa smiled softly. She had never considered herself a good singer, but Zelda had always loved her voice._

_By the time the Sheikah had finished the lullaby, Zelda had once again fallen asleep. Impa leaned her head against the window and closed her eyes._

_“We’re here,” the driver called through the wall. Impa sat up with a start, looking around. Zelda, too, awoke; although certainly less gracefully than her guardian. She made a complaining sound and hurriedly swiped away a string of saliva from her chin. Impa placed a hand on the princess’ shoulder._

_“Zelda, my dear, we’ve arrived.”_

_Zelda stretched with a whine. Impa smiled before manifesting her naginata, the leather-wrapped shaft settling into her hands._

_“I will be back in a moment. Stay here; I need to check if it’s safe.”_

_Impa opened the door and slipped out, latching the wooden door closed again and moving closer to the monument a short distance from the carriage. A worn and battered statue with a chipped beard and a missing arm marked the place. A forgotten hero, or perhaps an old king of an ancient race long extinct. Even in her extensive lessons on Hyrule’s history, Impa had never encountered this man. She placed her hand on the pedestal below the man, and knocked twice on the pedestal before reciting a quick chant in Ancient Hylian._

_The statue shivered and looked down at Impa with a sound like rocks sliding over one another._

_“You hath knowledge of the ancient words, being of shadows,” he said in a whispering voice. Impa tightened her grip on the naginata. Even statues might have a grudge against the Shadow Folk. Most did._

_“I am Impa of the Sheikah,” she said formally, “and I bring a sacred relic for hiding under your care. Would you accept this relic?”_

_The statue’s gritty face slowly moved into a smile._

_“I can feel the power thy child holds in her hands,” he whispered. “and my queen would be glad to accept it. Go, retrieve the child.”_

_Impa turned towards the carriage and whistled the six notes she had taught Zelda, and the princess came scurrying out of the carriage, box held firmly. She stopped beside Impa._

_“A talking statue,” she said in astonishment. “Our statues don’t do that.”_

_“I should think not, my lady,” the statue laughed, and it sounded like stones breaking. “Enter, young goddess, and lay thy magicks to rest.”_

_The statue lifted his one arm, holding a marble blade, and drove it into his own pedestal. The stone split open and revealed a staircase leading downwards. A single wildfairy fluttered out of the gap._

_“Come, Zelda,” Impa said, grasping the princess’ hand and leading her down the staircase. Though she had read that she should be able to hear music, Impa could hear no sounds except the trickling of water. Despite her doubts, Impa continued down the smooth stairs, wary of falling. Only a faint glow at the bottom produced light. Zelda raised a hand, prepared to make her own, magical light, but Impa gently pushed her hand down._

_“No, Zelda,” she said. “Don’t use your magic until we’ve hidden that box,”_

_As soon as they reached the bottom of the Impa knew that something was wrong. To be fair, anyone would have been able to tell something was wrong. In the middle of the pool was the body of a woman, wearing no clothing except tall leather boots, and with red hair fanning out from her face. Her face was painted brightly but her eyes were completely transparent, offering a disconcerting view into the back of her head. Silver liquid stained the fountain’s water and the woman’s chest. Tattered wings had lost their glow, no more beautiful than the wings of a mosquito. Impa couldn’t help but drink in the sight; she had never seen a Great Fairy before. She suddenly realised that the fairy was evidently in no condition to preserve her own modesty, and Impa was about to hustle Zelda away to save her the sight before the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. Impa lifted her naginata and shrugged her half-cape back off her shoulder, red eyes sweeping the cave._

_Whatever had killed the Great Fairy was clearly still here._

_“Zelda, I want you to go back to the carriage,” she said slowly, controlling her voice. Zelda was staring at the Great Fairy in the fountain._

_“Impa,” she said nervously, “what’s wrong with the Great Fairy?”_

_“Zelda,” said Impa again. “you need to go.”_

_Zelda looked at Impa, evidently not comprehending the Sheikah’s calm voice; it was the alarm in her eyes that tipped the Hylian off. She turned to flee just as the first monster hurtled out of the shadows. The princess screamed, reflexively jerking backwards, and Impa swung the naginata, slicing the Lizalfos from shoulder to hip. Another three keened and lunged forwards out of nowhere; Impa impaled another and quickly realised that Zelda was still not fleeing. Beheading the Lizalfos blocking the exit, the Sheikah cried out “Run!”_

_Zelda almost made it before a Lizalfos, shrieking, slammed into the arches of the fountain and brought down a hail of boulders from the ceiling, collapsing the entrance. For the first time, Impa felt a slight trickle of fear. She manifested a Sheikan knife from the shadows, hurling it into the eye of another Lizalfos. Looking around, she realised there were Lizalfos simply_ everywhere. _At least a hundred of them, all emerging from the darkness and wailing their high-pitched noises. No way all those monsters had hidden and Impa hadn’t noticed them. This wasn’t something done by monsters. There was a sorcerer behind this._

_It wasn’t long before the fairy blood in the fountain was joined by that of Sheikah. A set of savage claw marks had scored their way straight down her right arm, splitting her tattoos down the middle and staining the wrist wrapping red. They were going to lose. Impa stepped backwards and then a Lizalfos suddenly screeched and recoiled as something struck it on the snout. Who else was in here? Impa’s foot landed in the fountain just as Zelda let out another piercing scream of fear._

_“Zelda!” Impa yelled, turning, naginata raised defensively, arm outstretched towards Zelda. The beginnings of tears were forming in her eyes; she had failed in her task. Her moment of distraction cost her dearly; a Lizalfos nearly bowled her over and savagely bit her shoulder, another sunk its teeth into her wrist._

_And then her muscles locked up, and she could no longer move her fingers. She didn’t even manage to look down before her arms froze entirely, the Lizalfos venom working insanely fast, faster than anything she had heard of before. Only magic could have worked this fast._

_The tear just had time to slip free before Impa of the Sheikah turned to stone._

* * *

* * *

* * *

**chapter one**

**I Apparently Doom the Universe**

It was a dark and stormy night.

Okay, no, it was actually quite clear and bright, the moon shining gently, but I really think it should have been the first one. It describes the atmosphere better.

I look at the girl nestled in the grass before the Deku Tree, breathing peacefully, then I cast yet another appraising look at Saria. Her jaw is set and she only catches my eye for a second before looking back up at the silent Deku Tree. I rub my elbow worriedly. This silence is continuing for far too long.

“Link,” says the Deku Tree solemnly, and I can’t help but hitch in a breath. “Why have you brought this girl here?”

“I didn’t know where else to take her,” I yammer immediately, having anticipated this question. “She was being attacked by monsters and I couldn’t just leave her there. I didn’t have anywhere else to go,”

“What were you doing outside the woods anyway?” Saria asks, and I look at her guiltily. She has a curiously blank look on her face. If I know her as well as I think I do, she’s feeling pretty damn betrayed right now. And I can’t blame her. Going over my answer, I chew my tongue nervously. I guessed that this question would be coming too, but I don’t have a pretty answer for this one.

“I...uh…” I mentally curse, stumbling over my own words. “I was... _ Saria made me do it! _ ” I blurt without thinking, and Saria makes a choked noise and looks at me in horror.

“I-!” she cuts off in disbelief, glaring furiously, but I shoot her a beseeching look. Saria rolled her eyes, thinking fast.

“I made an offhanded comment,” she lies brutally, “daring him to go in the hole. I didn’t know he was dumb enough to actually do it, and I definitely didn’t know there was a girl in it!”

The Deku Tree is silent, and I fidget uncomfortably. I wish I could start pacing, just to work the twitches out of my leg muscles, but I shove the urge aside. Even so, I tap my toes incessantly against the inside of my boots.

“Where is Navi?” says the tree finally, and I can’t help but wince.

“Uh...she’s...sleeping?” I try, but the tree’s not buying it. I sigh, dreading the incoming assault. “I put her in a jar,”

Saria squeaks in shock.

“What the hell, Link? You put Navi in a jar?”

“She was annoying me!”

The Deku Tree rustles, annoyed. 

“Saria, go release Navi,” he commands. Saria makes a noise like someone’s stepped on her and turns away, stalking out of the meadow muttering angrily. The Deku Tree returns his focus to me and I can feel his gaze falling on me like a tree.

“Why did you leave the forest?” he asks again, quietly. I stare at him defiantly, stomach bubbling nervously.

“Not telling,” I object stubbornly, and the tree looks at me. My entire foot’s tapping now, boot making obvious noise against the grass, and the tree’s enormous mouth tightens.

“Where was the girl?” he asks, changing the subject. I pounce on the opportunity to move away from the previous question.

“The hole led into a big underground pond,” I explain quickly, “all glowy and stuff. It was insane in there, there were big monsters everywhere. I barely managed to grab the girl and get out,”

“I see,” says the tree. “And what’s that in her hands?”

I step forwards, tugging the lyre out of her grip with some difficulty.

“Just a harp,” I say, holding it up for him to see. “She had it with her in a box. Wouldn’t let go of it even when she passed out. She’s got some grip, I’m telling you,”

I look back at the girl sprawled in the grass. She looks so…  _ foreign _ , with her hair knotted with gleaming golden clasps and her face painted like a doll, that a part of my mind is repeatedly asking itself what she’s doing here. The Deku Tree lifts a thin surface root from the ground, shaking off soil, and loops it around the lyre, lifting it up level with his nose.

“It must be worth a lot,” I say carefully. “Whoever she is, she must be high up. I think it might be solid gold. I’d hate to be the person who paid for that,”

The Deku Tree takes a long time to answer, and when he does, he talks in his Incredibly-Slow-Filled-With-Awe voice. Or maybe it’s his Incredibly-Slow-’Oh-Hell-We’re-All-Dead’ voice. Which is never good news.

“This lyre is beyond price,” he said softly. “The day it was sold for any amount of money would be the day Hyrule fell,”

I roll my eyes crossly.

“Feel like translating that for kids?” I ask, probably with more sass than I should have used in the current situation. The tree gives me a look that I could have predicted would be his response.

“This girl needs to be kept safe here,” he says, dodging my question. “Find her some suitable clothing, and hide away her valuables. She will stay in the forest.”

“Of course she will,” I say, rolling my eyes again. I think I’m getting a headache from eye-rolling so much. “Any particular reason why?”

The tree shoots me a rather piercing look.

“Because you, Link, have quite possibly doomed Hyrule by bringing this girl here. Doomed it, or saved it.”

“What?” I ask, paling. “D-doomed? Or saved? Is there a way to pick between the two? A questionnaire or something? Because dooming sounds like really bad and I don’t want to have that on my-”

“You have heard tell of the fighting on Hyrule’s borders?” the tree interrupts. “The countless men and women laying down their lives?”

I swallow hard. If he’s bringing them up, then I’ve just affected them. And if I’ve affected them then I’m in so much trouble.

The Deku Tree brushes the sleeping girl’s face with a drooping, willowy branch, before adding softly;

“This is who they’re dying for.”

I’m having one of those nights where you just can’t sleep no matter what you do. You lie awake, staring at the ceiling. Then you roll over and stare at the wall for a while. And  _ then  _ you think, _ to hell with it!  _ and try putting your pillow down the wrong end of the bed just to see if the change of scenery will help at all. And then you roll over again and come face to face with the Hylian girl lying on a bed next to you. And  _ holy heck there’s a Hylian girl in my treehouse. _

I sit up sharply. I’ve never actually seen a Hylian in my travels before. I study her carefully. Bright blonde hair, ridiculously pale skin, narrow features and thin pointy ears. I raise a hand to my own ear carefully. Same thin pointy ears- not wide and expressive like all the other Kokiri. I mean, I know I wasn’t born Kokiri like most, but I became one somehow in the woods. Was I Hylian? It seems likely, given the physical resemblance and stuff. Could have been worse, eh? Could have ended up a Skull Kid or Stalfos.

The girl is curled in some spare blankets, newly dressed in Kokiri green, with a small pink wildfairy sleeping draped over her wrist. Chunks of her hair are uneven since Saria and I had to use a fruit knife to cut the metal clasps out of her hair. We’re still vexed by the metal loops sticking through her ears- we didn’t want to risk taking them out in case they bled everywhere or something. Surely they’re there for a reason- who the hell would deliberately stick metal through their ears? How disgusting! Surely there’s something we can do. The others will notice that and wonder what the right ruddy heck is wrong with her. Wouldn’t it hurt? I grope around on the side table and find a pile of heather flowers Navi had collected- she said my house stank. Not sure why, it smells totally normal to me. A little stuffy, maybe, but that’s only because the window is always blocked off to stop Mido sneaking in. 

As if thinking about her woke me up, I see Navi’s blue light illuminate the room as she wriggles out from under my hat on the bedstand.

“What are you dooooooooiiiing?” she yawns widely, landing on my nose. I brush her off impatiently and she huffs- I’m still not forgiven for the jar thing, apparently.

“I’m trying to figure out how to stop her ears looking stupid,” I point at the girl. Navi huffs.

“I told you not to go,” she said. “Now look,”

“If I hadn’t gone she’d have been dead,” I snap, and Navi huffs again.

“Let me see,” she says, irritated. She flutters in close to the girl’s ear. “There’s a little clasp here. You could undo it and pull it straight out, by the looks. If it starts bleeding we can get that fairy on her wrist to heal it.”

“Okay,” I say uncertainly. “Can you do it?”

Navi deftly undoes the ear-loops and lifts them up to the bedstand, dropping them with a clatter.

“They’re fine,” she says. “Not bleeding or anything,”

“Good,” I remark. 

“Aren’t you tired?” she asks snarkily. “You’ve been running off all day, you should be knackered,”

“I can’t sleep,” I admit. 

“Let me help with that,” she says, and then puffs a great deal of fairy dust into my face. Well that helped a ton, because I fell asleep right there and then, with my pillow still down the wrong end of my bed.

I wake to the obnoxious voice of Mido screaming up my ladder.

“Hey! No-Fairy!” he hollers, reverting back to the taunting nickname from before Navi showed up. “Is it true you kidnapped a Hylian?”

What the-? How did  _ he  _ find out? It was a private meeting!

“No!” I answer immediately.

“I don’t believe you!” Mido responds loudly. “I’m coming up to check!”

_ Oh no, oh no,  _ I think desperately. What do I do? I can’t let him see the girl. Navi suddenly lifts off my shoulder and zooms out the door, and even from here I can hear her tiny voice shrieking “No you will not! Who said he’s dressed?”

Navi and I. It’s a love-hate relationship. 

There are a few groans and a yelp of surprise from Mido on the ladder, then the hurried sound of someone going  _ down  _ the ladder. I guess even the great Mido has his limits. Navi flutters back in looking smug, and I glare at her.

“’Who said he’s dressed’?” I ask skeptically. “You couldn’t think of any other reason?”

“I had about two seconds,” Navi snaps. “Like you could do better.”

“What are we going to do with her, Navi?” I sigh, looking at the girl on the bed. I’m relieved she didn’t morph into a Skull Kid overnight- or worse, a Stalfos. If she had, I probably wouldn’t have woken up at all.

“Link!” another tiny voice chimes from behind me. I jump and whirl around to see Kiri, Saria’s fairy, bobbing up and down in the air.

“Kiri! Don’t  _ do  _ that!” I snap, still feeling a little skittish. She laughs, her voice sounding like the chiming of small bells.

“What, did I scare you?” she smiles, her translucent wings fluttering cheerily. “Saria sent me to tell you the Deku Tree wants to see you.”

I frown.

“How am I supposed to get out without Mido seeing me?” I ask. “He’ll sneak up here and see the girl.”

“I dunno,” Kiri says.

“Mido Door?” suggests Navi.

At one point Mido got in the habit of sneaking into my house to throw stuff around and steal my rupees. It got so bad Saria and I started calling the window the Mido Door and blocked it up with shelves. Eventually the Great Deku Tree stepped in –metaphorically- and told Mido off, which was a relief. I put my boot up on the edge of the window and grab onto the bark of my house itself, climbing down it with an ease born of years’ worth of experience. I duck behind a row of shrubs as I sneak over to the meadow, Kiri leading the way and chatting arbitrarily with Navi.

I find Saria waiting beside the narrow passage into the Deku Tree’s meadow, plaiting vines into a braid-like strand and whistling a tune. Because I know she would have been the one who told Kiri to scare me, I get her back by blowing in her ear. She doesn’t even flinch, or even turn to face me. Probably still pissed at me for throwing her under the bus yesterday. Join the queue. 

“Hey, Link. Come on, the Deku Tree is waiting.” 

She drapes the braid over a stone and turns towards the passage, looking back to make sure I’m following- which I am. Quickly, in fact. I’m quite anxious to find out what on  _ earth  _ I am meant to do with this girl. In retrospect, it was probably a  _ really  _ bad idea to drag a Hylian into the woods. At the time, I wasn’t really thinking of the consequences, my thought pattern was more along the lines of  _ oh my gods I am going to die if I don’t run NOW. _

The expression on the Deku Tree’s face isn’t a happy one and I stop. That doesn’t bode well at all- at least, not for me. I feel like Saria just wants the girl gone and everything back to normal. Is that a girl thing, or just a Saria thing?

“Link,” says the Deku Tree in a booming voice, and I mentally cross my fingers. Please don’t get mad. Please.

“The Kokiri Forests have long stood as a barrier between Hyrule,” begins the tree, “and the outside forces that would wish to do it harm, especially in the current conflicts. We keep our distance from the fighting, and in return the armies keep their distance from us. It is understood that the inhabitants of these woods are no more than children, and all know that the murder of children is an abominable sin.”

I don’t see what this has to do with me, but I keep my trap shut. It’s exactly like I thought- I’ve somehow affected the border wars. He’s brought them up twice. I’m so screwed.

“The war itself has dwindled for much time,” says the tree, “and a treaty is close to being made. These wars have continued on and off for more than ten years; admittedly, there have been times of peace in between the periods of conflict. On one border, we have the armies of Calatia-Ikana, allied with Holodrum to our west. Allied with us is the country of Labrynna, with their many technological enhancements, to our east.”

“Why are they fighting with us?” I ask, earning a triple disapproving look from Saria, Navi and Kiri. “What have we done?”

“Calatia-Ikana are undoubtedly the aggressors in this battle, and Holodrum’s king has allied with them in return for his country’s safety. His dedication to his subjects is admirable, of course, but means more danger for those of us in Hyrule. The war is being fought over an artifact of legend that many are beginning to doubt the existence of. Many believe that it would have been used by now, after ten years of conflict.”

“What is it?” asks Saria softly.

“I am speaking of the Holy Triforce,” 

_ What? _ I think.

“What?” I say.

The Deku Tree sighs, as he always does when I’ve apparently asked a stupid question.

“I shall start from the beginning,” he says in his deep voice. 

_ “In the beginning, there was nothing. Nothing existed at all- except the three goddesses. These three goddesses cast their eyes down and wondered what they could make with their talents. There was Din, of Power, whose willpower arms every warrior in war. There was Nayru, of Wisdom, whose knowledge shields the wise from harm. And there was Farore, of Courage, whose emotion keeps the lowly going when life has lost its allure.  _

_ “These three descended from the heavens and looked across the bleak expanse of what was then the world, and then Din began. With her strong, flaming arms, she created the red earth and stones; without Din, the earth would not be. She sculpted the stones into a shape that pleased her, and was the first to walk on the solid ground.  _

_ “Nayru, with her great knowledge, carved into existence the laws that govern the ordinary. She made it so that there would be none who would seek to change their creation in dark ways; but also that there would be none to endanger themselves with unstable powers.  _

_ “Farore, with her righteous heart, poured her spirit onto the earth, and from it rose the life that would uphold the law. To maintain the earth, the three goddesses sent down their daughter Hylia, the White Goddess; she created her own race, the humans, in her parent’s images. Hylia became the mother of all life in the five lands.  _

_ “With their task completed, the three goddesses retreated to the heavens to watch their creation grow. At the place where they left the world, a symbol of their power was left, a gift to any brave and clever and strong enough to reach it. Three triangles, forged in the metal of the gods, that had the power to bestow upon its holder the powers of its creators along with one wish that was capable of completely rearranging how the ordinary was made; yet the goddesses were confident that only one with a righteous heart could touch it. It was called the Triforce. _

_ “However, as time moved on, they saw their creations beginning to fight, killing each other in the desire of reaching the sacred pyrite symbol. At first the White Goddess protected it, but through some occurrence her power was lost and she died. It was for the good of the world when the Golden Goddesses formed the Sacred Realm around the Triforce, separating it from the five kingdoms forever. ” _

I stare for a second before realising the story is over. 

“So...everything was made by Din, Nayru and Fay...Farore?”

“Indeed,” the Deku Tree says.

“But why?”

“Link, seriously,” Navi says. “You think we know what motivates gods?”

Gods. They sound so not like people. But they have names and they’re female and stuff. Like people. Why would these three- Din, Nayru and Farore- randomly decide to create everything? Where are they when people need help? Where are they when people are dying or being hurt? And most of all, what’s any of this got to do with me?

“What’s any of this got to do with me?” I ask, fidgeting. The Deku Tree pauses.

“The lyre she brought with her was the harp that supposedly belonged to Hylia herself. Legend often calls it the Goddess’ Harp. It was a gift from Nayru to Hylia, given as a way to call the Wisdom Goddess to her aid. Hylia was supposed to have used this at the Parting of Worlds, when the Triforce was sealed away from living beings by the Goddesses themselves. The second legendary instrument was the Ocarina of Time. While the harp was made from the stars of space, the ocarina was carved from the stones of time. But that instrument has been lost for centuries. The harp, on the other hand, is right here. And dangerous.”

“You’re not saying…” I breathe in shock.

“Yes, Link. This girl was attacked for the Goddess Harp, which in the wrong hands could bring destruction on us all.”

Saria looks at me, as if to say  _ what have you done? _

I bite my thumb.

“That would be bad,”


	2. Mido is Stupid

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Kokiri don't take well to having a Hylian in their midst, but it's not the girl they're blaming. Because that would be too easy.

****“She’s waking up!”

Navi’s shrill shriek prompts Saria to lift her head groggily from the table and look at me with bleary eyes. I wave her over and stare at the stirring Hylian girl. Navi is whirling in circles around her head, and she slowly opens her eyes, blinking to focus them.

Wow. Her eyes are like, really blue. As in, rival-the-sky blue. As in, _holy hell she’s looking at me._

She blinks those brilliant eyes a few times more and then seems to register Saria and I looming over her; she sits up sharply with a pathetic noise that was probably meant to be a shriek, smacking her head into my jaw with a sharp crack. I stagger back and land on my butt, spots popping before my eyes. Saria lets out a small shriek and smacks the girl on the head in fright. What an ineffective attack. The girl whines in fear, scrambling backwards and toppling off the other side of the bed in an extremely unladylike manner.

“Owwww…” I groan, massaging my jaw and sitting up. Saria grabs my arm and hauls me to my feet, eyes filled with concern.

“Are you okay?” she asks worriedly.

“Fine as a daisy,” I complain. “Never better. Joy of joys, I’ve rescued the killer-of-people’s-faces.”

The girl sticks her head up over the bed cautiously.

“G-go away!” she says loudly, and Saria shushes her hurriedly. “I’m warning you, I’m armed!”

“No, you’re not,” Saria sighs, brushing her fringe behind a large ear. “I checked,”

The girl proves us wrong by vaulting over the bed with a discarded Deku stick and bashing me over the head with it. I hit the floor a second time while Saria gracefully grabs the stick, twists it from the girl’s grip and throws it out the window.

“Calm down,” she instructs, firmly but warmly. “We’re not going to hurt you,”

“Leave me alone!” she shouts, backing up and hitting the wall.

“Owww!” I whine, sitting up. “Why did you hit me? I wasn’t the one who said it. Geez, I save your butt and this is the thanks I get?”

“You…” she says slowly, like she’s just getting it. “You’re the one who saved me?”

“No duh,” I say. “You weren’t doing a very good job, so I figured I’d step in,”

“Who are you?” she demands sharply, and I frown. Am I being ruder than I should be? Probably. That happens sometimes.

“I’m Link,” I say, “and this is Saria. She didn’t save you. And the fairies are Navi and Kiri. Don’t swat them even if you really want to because it’s supposed to be bad luck. I’m not sure if that’s true or if we’re just told that so we don’t swat our fairies. Anyway, who are you?”

“My name is Zelda. Thank you,” she says.

“Don’t mention it,”

“He only says that when he wants you to mention it,” grins Saria. “Welcome to the Lost Woods,”

Zelda pales. “These are the Lost Woods? Won’t I turn into a Stalfos?”

“Nope,” I grin. “Good ol’ Great Deku Tree has you covered. Magicky magic, eh?”

Zelda gives us both a cursory once-over before slowly extending a hand.

“I’m sorry?” Saria says in confusion.

“You can’t be serious,” Zelda says in disbelief. “You speak Hylian and yet you don’t do handshakes?”

“What’s a handshake?”

“It’s…” she makes a face. “It’s like a thing.”

“Descriptive,” I nod sagely.  She shoots me a look and I shut up.

“It’s sort of like a recognition,”  the blonde says formally. She lowers her hands by her sides and I can see the confusion in her face as her hand brushes the fluffy lining of her brown skirt.

“What the- these aren’t my clothes!” she says in shock, looking down at the Kokiri garb. Saria runs her tongue over her lips.

“Yeah, about that,” she says. “We had to change your clothes. Everyone wears green in the village- you’d stand out like a shrub in the middle of a pond.”

Zelda shrieks with what I’m assuming is outraged modesty.

“ _You did what?_ ”

“Hey, hey, it’s okay!” I soothe hurriedly. “No guys involved. Just Saria.”

Saria shoots me a look and I assume I’m not helping, so I shut up.

“Your stuff is over there,” she points to the little chest I shoved her dress in, only for Saria to pull it out and fold it neatly. Zelda glares.

“You better not have stolen anything,” she says protectively.

“Your jewellery is all in there. We didn’t steal anything,” I assure her.

Zelda sits down on the bed, sighing, and Saria and I immediately sit down too. We were both waiting for someone else to do it first, evidently.

“How did I get here?” she asks tiredly. “I was in the middle of the desert,”

“The desert?” I ask in confusion. I thought the fountain-y thing was just under the Lost Woods. Unless the hole was a Lost Door. Which would be _awesome!_ I glance at Saria and it looks like she’s having the same thoughts.

“Yes, the desert,” Zelda says impatiently. “How did I get here?”

“That, miss, is a long story,” I try and evade, but she’s having none of it.

“I think it was a Lost Door,” I admit. “I saw a cool hole and jumped in it to see what was in there. I thought it was a tunnel or something, because it didn’t look natural. Popped out in your fountain and all hell broke loose. I shot a few in the face with a slingshot, saw you screaming fit to wake the Stalkin and grabbed you. Hightailed it back here before anything else went wrong,”

“What happened to Impa?” Zelda asks.

Who’s Impa?

“Who’s Impa?”

“My handmaiden,” she says. “Tall, red eyes, big naginata,”

“What’s a naginata?” Saria asks.

“It’s… it’s like a spear.”

“Oh.”

“I didn’t see her,” I say guiltily, suddenly wondering if I left this Impa person to die. “I was too busy running for my life,”

Zelda looks down.

“She’ll be fine,” she says quietly. “Impa can hold her own,”

I relax slightly.

“When can I go home?” she asks. “Impa will be waiting for me,”

I exchange worried looks with Saria.

“Uh, about that,” Saria winces. “We don’t think you can,”

Zelda opens her mouth but Saria ploughs on.

“The Great Deku Tree- you’ve heard of him, right?- he says that if you were attacked then you need somewhere safe to stay. He says here is the safest place in Hyrule. Nobody can get into the woods unless he, the Deku or the fairies allow them safe passage. Anyone else gets chased out by Stalfos and Skull Kids,”

Zelda bites a nail.

“But I want to go home,” she says plaintively. Navi lands comfortingly on her shoulder.

“It’s for the best,” the fairy says quietly. “The Deku Tree says he’s already sent fairies to your parents, and they’re on their way there. I don’t know how he knows where they are, but he does. He just knows things like that,”

“Of course he’d know where my parents are,” she says. Navi places a small blue hand on Zelda’s cheek.

“You’ll be safe here. I promise. _We_ promise.”

The tender moment is interrupted by a grating shout.

“Aha!” a voice trumpets from the doorway. All five of us whirl around to see Mido. Gah! I didn’t even hear him climb up the ladder! “I knew it was true! You’ve crossed the line this time, No-Fairy! Wait until the Deku Tree hears you actually kidnapped someone!”

Without even looking at Zelda or Saria, he slides down the outside of the ladder before we have a chance to shout after him, and I can see him sprinting off around the village proclaiming his findings. Saria groans.

“Oh man,” she says. “This isn’t how the Deku Tree wanted the others to find out about you, Zelda,”

Zelda looks disgusted.

“Who was that?”

“That was Mido,” Kiri says crossly. “He thinks he’s the village chief. I’m not even sure if there’s such thing,”

“He sounds… not nice,” Zelda tries delicately. I make a face.

“He’s pretty much the reason I don’t go out much,” I grumble.

“He’s a rude little brat,” Saria stomps a foot, “and I wish he would stop making everyone pull the weeds in front of my house. He won’t leave me alone

Zelda makes an ‘oh’ noise of understanding.

“I get it. He’s one of _those._ I feel your pain,”

I watch as several Kokiri start milling anxiously around, roused by Mido’s words.

“Should we, like, stop him or something?” Navi asks anxiously, landing on my nose and following my line of sight.

“No point,” Kiri reminds her tiredly. “He’s told half the village by now.”

“Still,” Saria says. “We should probably have gone after him.”

Zelda nods. “He sounds like the kind of guy that I want to punch.”

“Tried that,” I wince. “Zero out of ten, would not recommend. He punches back.”

“Technically you’re the one punching _back,_ ” adds Navi, ever the stickler for stupid details. I glare at Navi while Zelda frowns.

“He punches first? Okay, now I really hate him,”

“You seem to be the violent type,” Kiri comments.

“Nah,” Zelda says. “Just repressed. I’m not supposed to punch people,”

I spread my arms.

“Go bananas,” I say. “There are plenty of morons to punch here. Take your pick.”

Saria rolls her eyes.

“And this is why you’re always getting the snot beat out of you. Can’t stay out of trouble for more than two minutes?”

“Less than that,” Navi corrects. “Maybe one minute?”

“Nope,” I say innocently. “Can’t do that.”

It’s at this point that I hear shouts from below.

“That...that would be the others, wouldn’t it,” Kiri comments. Colourful light shines up the ladders as fairies vie for their charges’ attention- obviously they’ve been briefed on what’s actually going on and are trying to stop the chaos.

“We’ll go deal with them,” Navi says, and the two fairies zip out the door and down to the crowd. The noise level rises drastically as they start arguing it out with the Kokiri below, some of whom are apparently not convinced of Mido’s story.  Their voices are clashing together irritatingly. Zelda grimaces at the noise, and flicks a wrist at the ladder.

“ _I want to burn the ladder_ ,” she says firmly, and nothing happens. “ _I want to burn the ladder!_ ” she repeats, flicking her hand again. This time there’s a loud pop- Saria and I nearly jump out of our skin- and the grass ropes tying the ladder up are burning through. Within seconds the ladder is collapsing backwards, landing on the ground with a dull _thunk._

“What was that?” I ask incredulously. Zelda smiles.

“What, that? That’s nothing,” she says with a grin. She snaps her fingers, saying “ _I want fire_ ” and immediately her index finger lights up with a small flame. Saria, Navi and I stare at it in disbelief, and I poke it cautiously. Ow! I stick my finger in my mouth and try to ignore the ridiculing look Zelda is giving me.

“What did you _think_ was going to happen?” she asks.

“Why doesn’t it burn _you?_ ” I whine around the finger in my mouth.

“Because I made it,” she answers, flicking the finger. The little flame bounces up in the air to land back on her finger.

“P-put that out, now!” Saria suddenly snaps at Zelda. Zelda looks befuddled. “Zelda, we live in a forest! You don’t just set stuff on fire!”

She quietly puts out the little flame just as there is a thump from the other side of the room.

“What was that?” Saria says in confusion, standing up. I join her and look out the window- and promptly get hit smack on the nose with a Deku nut.

“Ow!” I whine. This is _not_ my day. Between Zelda the Destroyer of Heads, fire with a grudge and random flying Deku nuts, everything seems to want me dead.

“Your fault your nose is so big,” Saria says. “It’s practically a targ- _ow!_ ”

She’s poked her head out the window and jerked backwards after she receives the same treatment. “Who’s doing that?” Zelda asks, joining us at the window. That’s when three people lunge through the window and suddenly I’m on the ground.

“Hey!” I protest as Zelda shrieks, leaping backwards in fright. I kick out furiously before realising that it’s Fado twisting my arm behind my back. “What the hell, Fado? What are you doing?”

“Get _off!_ ” Saria kicks Somi, one of the Know-it-All Brothers, in the shins, and he yelps but keeps his grip. Mido saunters up to Zelda, who’s holding a clay pot threateningly.

“Hey,” he says, rather gently by his standards. “Did No-Fairy the psycho do anything? It’s okay, I’ll look after you,” He makes the mistake of grabbing her arm and she attempts to hit him with the pot.

“Leave me alone! Let them go!” she yells as Mido stops the pathetic attack and puts down the pot.

Mido nods wisely. “It’s okay. You’re disorientated. That’s understandable. Come, I’ll take you to the Deku Tree.”

He picks the wriggling Zelda up in a bear hug and somehow hops out the window and slides out of sight. Somi shakes his head as though disappointed.

“I knew you were weird, Link,” he says, “but I didn’t realise you were completely off the high bough,”

“I didn’t kidnap her!” I snarl. “What kind of idiots are you? You seriously believe everything Mido says?”

Fado giggles.

“Well, we certainly don’t believe everything _you_ say! If you didn’t kidnap her how’d she get here, eh? The Stalfos would have chased her out if she came herself!” She snorts on the word ‘Stalfos’- she has a thing. Thinks they’re hilarious. “I didn’t think you’d drop Saria here so fast though. Thought you were better than that,”

“Oh, damn you, Fado,” Saria snaps.

I kick Fado’s knee.

She tips me out the window.

I land on my face.

_Ow._

Fado jumps down and lands on her feet beside me, neatly. Little ninja freak.

“See!” she says cheerfully, hauling me back up and shoving me against the tree. “Don’t kick people! It’s mean!”

“Almost as mean as throwing them out windows?” I groan, getting my boots back under me. My cheek is throbbing angrily. I really hope she didn’t break anything.

“Yep!”

I think she missed the sarcasm there. Somi slides down the tree like Mido did, Saria hung over his back.

“Seriously, Somi!” Saria is saying. “What the hell? Since when did we need lynch mobs to sort out something stupid Mido has said? Surely I’m not the _only person_ who doesn’t worship him?”

I’m sure if I could see Somi’s eyes I would be able to tell his position. I rather suspect he’s blind or something- his hair grows absurdly over his face.

“Oi, listen to me!” she snaps.

“I can see who wears the pants in this relationship,” remarks Fado. I don’t get it. “Except you’re not with Saria. Does this other girl also wear the pants?”

“Rack off!” Saria growls.

“I am literally right here,” I say from my mouthful of tree. She shushes me obnoxiously and starts dragging me towards the Deku Tree’s meadow. Past the crowd of loudly arguing Kokiri- my heart leaps as I hear several berating Mido, Fado and Somi. Fairies chime in alarm, zooming towards the Deku Tree. Within minutes I hear his angry yell.

“ _What is the meaning of this?_ ” he bellows. Fado and Somi drag us into the clearing and dump us on the ground; I curl up with a hand to my aching face, while Saria lashes out with a kick that drops Somi like a stone.

“Look, Deku Tree!” Mido yells, shoving Zelda forward. She’s furious. “Here’s the girl! He kidnapped her!”

The Deku Tree’s bark is darkening, a sure-fire sign that someone is about to cop it.

“Link…” he says, obviously trying to keep his cool, “…did not kidnap anyone. I will _not_ have you treating him in this manner!”

“Wha-? You believe _him_? If he didn’t kidnap her, where did this Hylian come from?” Mido asks defensively.

“She came into the woods of her own accord,” the Deku Tree says, “looking for her brother.”

I blink. I didn’t know the Deku Tree even _could_ lie. I look at Saria, who shrugs.

And who’s the ‘brother’?

“Her… her brother?” Soti, Somi’s own brother steps back. “Who’s that?”

“You accused him of kidnapping her about twenty seconds ago,” the Deku Tree says.

Whoa…

WHOA.

_WHOA._

Wait a second, what? What the _actual_ hell? Why would he say that?

“That’s his _sister?!_ ” shrieks the midget Timi, falling off his ever-present stilts.

“No way!” howls Mido in shock. Noise erupts as the Kokiri shout their opinions at eachother.

“ _Silence!_ ” the tree shouts. “Your behaviour is disgraceful! You are not animals!”

“Now do you believe us?” Saria cries. Mido, wide eyed, drops Zelda’s arm; she immediately punches him.

“Touch me again and I will personally drop you off the top of the Great Deku Tree,” she threatens. He backs off skittishly.

Authority. Apparently I need some.

“Mido,” the tree begins, “this rumour-mongering of yours must stop. I am beyond tired of the way you treat Link and it is unacceptable for you to physically attack Link and Saria like this! Timi, you are in charge of Mido’s punishment.”

The tiny Kokiri gives a wicked grin and I mentally wince. Wouldn’t want to be Mido right now.

“Right on it, pa,” he says. I can almost hear his playwright’s mind flying over options for torment.

“As for the rest of you,” the tree says loudly, “if I see any of this behaviour lingering it will not be tolerated. Treat miss Zelda as you would eachother. She is as good as Kokiri now. Go.”

The Kokiri immediately flee the meadow, a few pausing.

“You showed him, Link,” Timi offers mischievously, balancing his stilts over one shoulder. It’s kind of unfortunate that he actually needs them to see over most people’s heads. He follows the others, and I distinctly hear him mutter something about cabbage patches and weeding.

Navi smacks into my face and I yelp.

“Gods! Those other kids are _feral!_ Are you okay, Link?”

“I’m fine,” I say softly, grateful for her anxiety for once. “Deku Tree,” I add carefully once everyone is gone. “What the _hell_ was _that?_ ”

“Language,” he murmurs.

“Why would you say I’m his sister?” Zelda asks. She has a really good point. Forest-born Kokiri usually don’t have siblings, per se; sometimes Kokiri will regard other Kokiri born from the same tree as them as their siblings. Often not.

“I said that as I knew it would defuse their anger and suspicion,” the Deku Tree says diplomatically.

“So… I have to spend the rest of my life with a _sister?_ You _do_ realise that us Kokiri live forever, right?”

The Deku Tree’s brow creases but before I can question it Zelda yelps.

“You live _forever?_ How is that possible? Do you just not age?”

“We stop aging when we hit around ten. I’ll look like this when you’re dead and go- holy _shit!_ ”

“Link!” Navi reprimands before the tree can say anything, scandalised. Even Zelda winces at the language.

“Deku Tree,” I say, with a horrible sense of dread, “she’s not Kokiri,”

“But we can pretend she is,” Saria points out. I shake my head.

“You’re missing the point. She’s going to _age,_ Saria. How long can we hide it for?”

“Oh, gods!” Navi says in horror, and Saria’s eyes widen in realisation.

“Hell!” she says. “He’s right, dad! We can’t get away with it for more than two years, it’s impossible!”

The Deku Tree rustles his branches.

“That will not be a problem,” he says stiffly, and I could swear, even though he has no real eyes, he looks at me.

I shake my head. “Course it won’t be, it’s not your head on the line here. You don’t even _have_ a head.”

The Deku Tree seems offended. I can’t blame him.

“Go, Link,” he sighs, and if he had hands he’d probably be dropping his head into them- if he had a head. “You have a ladder to repair, no?”

I think that might have been Deku Tree for ‘tick off’.

I oblige, stalking from the meadow. I raised a fair point! When we get found out for this, I’ll probably get lynched- I think sometimes that the Deku Tree forgets that although we all look like kids, we’re not! Somi and Soti are almost a century older than me; Fado’s around forty by now. Plenty old enough to know how to use a pitchfork as a weapon. They’ll be ropable when they figure out that I’ve brought a freaking future- _adult_ into our midst. The Skull Kids will converge on the village like a nightmare storm.

“Link!”

Saria’s chasing after me, grabbing my sleeve, Zelda at her heels. I slow in response.

“Calm down,” Saria soothes. “It’ll be fine.”

“We’ll figure something out, Link,” Navi says calmly, alighting on my head. “We always do and we always will.”

“Sure,” I say. “I can’t wait to be blamed for the first Hylian incursion into the Lost Woods in...in forever.”

“Zelda means no harm.” Navi says.

“I really don’t,” Zelda agrees. “I’ll leave now, if you want.”

“Why can’t she be made Kokiri?” Saria suddenly asks. “Like Link. Non-forest-born. Why not?”

“The Deku Tree has his reasons,” Navi says stiffly. “It wouldn’t be right for her to be anything other than Hylian.”

“True,” Zelda says. “I can’t. It’d be illegal for me to claim my birthright if I wasn’t Hylian,”

“Of course.” Saria rolls her eyes. “Because everything has to be difficult with us.”

 


	3. A Lesson in Ancient Hylian

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Link receives an unconventional gift from the Great Deku Tree

 

The house is frozen in silence.

I play with my bootlaces as all three of us dig around for a good sentence starter, the awkward atmosphere so thick you could take a bite out of it. It’s ridiculous.

“So, uh,” Saria tries tentatively. “You want to go in any of the events at the Greenleaf Festival, Zelda?”

Zelda blinks. “What’s the Greenleaf Festival?”

I shrug nonchalantly.

“Kokiri celebration,” I say unnecessarily. Saria shoots me a look and I wince as I realise I stole her conversation. “Happens once a year when the Deku Tree’s leaves are being shed and the fairy-buds are ready to open. Loads of music and competitions and stuff. Whoever wins the competitions gets a chance to go inside the Deku Tree and climb to the top.”

“Inside?” Zelda says in confusion.

“He’s mostly hollow,” Kiri explains. “Don’t ask how he controls how he grows. He just does. There’s little tunnels all through the tree,”

“That’s...unnatural,” the blonde adds evenly.

A silence follows the words. It’s completely normal for the tree. Sometimes when it’s stormy he lets us hide inside him and we have a ton of fun playing hide-and-seek in the dark with just our fairies to light the way.

“So whoever gets to the top first gets to let the first fairies out!” Navi blurts in an attempt to resolve the issue. “That’s why everyone tries really hard during the festival to win!”

“It sounds fun!” Zelda smiles faintly. “When is it?”

“A few weeks,” Saria says. “Timi’s losing his mind, because Fado was supposed to play the Moon Goddess in the play but she pulled out. Said she wanted to focus on the musical direction. She’s in charge of providing the background music to the play.”

“Harsh,” winces Zelda. “Was hers a hard part?”

“It’s one of the lead roles,” I stretch and lay back on my bed. “Granted, she doesn’t have many lines. Spends the whole time either acting serene or screaming like a wuss,”

“Screaming?” she pales. “What kind of messed-up play are you guys doing?”

“Eh, it’s not violent,” I backtrack. “It’s mostly just because she’s a massive crybaby the way Timi’s written her. He makes the plays himself, you know.”

“Timi?”

“The kid who fell off the stilts,” Saria summarises just as I’m about to try and give a physical description. To my chagrin, Zelda apparently immediately recognises and nods. Dammit.

“So do you guys have a part?” she asks.

“I’m the Sun Goddess’ daughter. I don’t get a name, apparently,” Saria responds.

“I get to be the villain!” I say excitedly. “I’m playing a monster. No speaking lines required!”

“Which is good, because he sucks at speaking lines,” Navi snorts. I wince.

“She’s right. I suck at acting. Monumentally bad at it.”

“Why would you go in a play if you don’t like acting?” Zelda wonders incredulously.

“Because I want to kick Mido’s butt,” I grin mischievously.

“A reasonable motivation,” she yawns, laying back on her bed. “I don’t think I’ll go in,”

“Why not?” Kiri frowns.

“Well, hopefully I’ll be out of here by the time this festival comes around,” she says brightly. Saria and I simultaneously raise eyebrows.

“Well, glad to know you appreciate our hospitality,” pipes Navi. “I still think you should try out. Just in case. Wouldn’t want to look like a total introvert!”

“It’s up to you,” Saria shrugs. The look on Zelda’s face makes me feel guilty; to her, this is one of those questions where you’re _told_ it’s your choice but you know that there’s still only one right answer. I almost open my mouth to tell her that it really is her choice before she responds.

“I guess I’ll try out. Where’s Timi live?”

The morning of the festival is a mess. Inside the Forest Stage, hidden from the Deku Tree so we don’t spoil the play, Timi howls orders like a psychotic fairy, waddling around in a wizard costume. He’s made shoes that are like a metre tall to cover for his shortness, and I have absolutely no freaking clue how he walks in them. He can’t use stairs wearing them, as we all found out the hard way when he stacked it off the stage and landed on his face. He’s clomping around anxiously, checking on all the mains to make sure they know everything they need to say and do.

It’d almost be better if he was actually yelling at me. Instead he seems to be ignoring me. I keep having to go up to him to double check stuff and he gets cross.

“I don’t have time to deal with every cast member, Link!” he says pleadingly. “I’m sorry! You’re going to have to show some ingenuity on this one.”

I really hope I’m not the only cast member who’s disgruntled at the way Timi’s only paying attention to Saria, Zelda and Mido, the main characters. I catch Fado’s eye.

“Fado!” I call, shrugging my costume bag back over my shoulder. “Fado, are we doing bows at the end? Where am I supposed to stand? Timi won’t tell me,”

“I’d assume centre stage, next to Saria,” she says. “I dunno. Not my area,”

I swallow back the biting reply.

“Okay,” I say evenly, wandering ‘backstage’. Saria isn’t even around, getting grilled by Timi to remember her lines. I can hear them bickering from here, and I sit on the grass crossly. We’re ready, for goodness’ sake! We don’t need more practice! Even Zelda’s nailed her lines by now. This is all a waste of time. I lean against the mossy walls and stretch out my legs, hoping they don’t cramp up with the movement.

“Hey, Link?” I hear a call around the corner and my head flies up. Saria! She sounds like she’s ready to bounce off the walls in excitement. I can already guess what she’s about to pester me on.

“Are you dressed yet?”

Bullseye.

“Not yet, almost!” I lie loudly. “Don’t come backstage yet!”

I yank the filthy-looking costume from my bag and tug it on over my tunic.

“No, wait, don’t! The Deku Tree wants to see you and you can’t be in costume or you’ll spoil it!”

Dammit.

I pull the costume off and shove it in the satchel again, tossing the bag against the wall and following Saria out to the ladder that leads up to the surface. She gestures me up first and I climb up it as quickly as I can. Why does the Deku Tree want to see me? This is probably gonna be retribution for my less-than-graceful exit the other day. I reach the surface and clamber onto the grass, chewing my lip anxiously. Man, everything I say comes back to bite me.

“So what’s going on?” I ask as Saria pops up after me.

“I dunno. He just wants to see you. You two should move in, I’m telling you,” she snorts. I raise an eyebrow. “Sorry,” she apologises. “I’m a little hyper. I’ve never had a lead role before,”

“I get it,” I assure her. “I’d be hyped, except my role kinda sucks.”

I went in hoping for a non-role. After I got the non-role I was annoyed at getting the non-role. What even.

“Anyway, I’ll see you by the stage later,” she smiles brightly. “Zelda wanted me to help her with her dialogue,”

I snort.

“If she’s not ready now then nobody is. She’s freaking perfect for the role,”

She’s got the snooty, prim demeanour of the Moon Goddess perfect, and she has the most piercing scream I’ve ever heard on a living creature. Absolutely perfect for it.

“Good luck,” she nods, climbing back down into the Forest Stage. I weave my way through the trees, boots tracing the path I could walk in my sleep by now, until I emerge into the village above the shop. I can see the Deku Tree from here, and I jump the fence down the hill and jog into the meadow. I wait patiently for him to speak, biting my tongue. I always feel so awkward whenever faced with the Deku Tree, even if I haven’t done anything wrong.

“Do you feel it?” he says abruptly, and I jump despite expecting it.

“U-uh, what am I supposed to be feeling?” I stammer. There’s something wrong with his voice. It’s unnerving.

He sighs, long and hard.

“I had hoped...perhaps not…” he continues as if I didn’t answer. I swallow hard. His voice is unnerving me, and his branches are unnaturally still despite the breeze filtered into the meadow.

“Deku Tree?” I ask nervously.

“If only it had been now…” he carries on his conversation with the air. “How am I supposed to know? Is it him? He has shown no signs…”

“D-Deku Tree!”

The shout pulls itself from my throat, cracking slightly. Gooseflesh ripples along my every limb and I take a step back. Who is he talking to? He’s scaring me!

Suddenly his branches start moving again and he frowns.

“Link?” he asks, and I breathe a sigh in relief as his voice returns to normal. “What are you doing here?”

“You called me here,” I say uncertainly. “You were...you were talking to yourself. Are you okay?”

“Oh, yes, child,” he says nonchalantly. “Do not fret. You say I called you here?”

“Yes,” I murmur. What is going on?

“Ah,” he sighs. “It must be time, then.”

“Time for what?”

“Link,” he begins carefully. “You are aware that you were not born in the forest, correct?”

“Yes,” I answer meekly.

“I fear I may have lied to you,” he says guiltily. “When I told you that being born outside the forest was not uncommon for Kokiri. In fact, you are the first Kokiri to have been born outside the forest in my memory.”

My breath catches.

“What does that mean for me? Are you saying that real Kokiri have to be born in the woods?”

“Not necessarily,” he says quietly. “It is possible for outsiders to become Kokiri in the same way that outsiders become Stalfos. It requires a great deal of effort and takes a very long time. The magic _should_ have been acting on you since the day you arrived in these woods and were given under my care. However, I have become concerned that your ears have not yet widened like those of the other Kokiri.”

My hands instinctively fly to my ears. I’ve always wondered why everyone else had wide ears and mine were thin. And no amount of tugging has made me able to move them like the others do. Something coils in my stomach. What is he trying to tell me?

“Am…” I say in a small voice, hating the way it betrays how uncertain I feel. “Am I a Kokiri?”

“Link,” he continues, “I fear that I have made a mistake. The magic is not working the way it should have. You haven’t completed the transformation into Kokiri, and as such you are aging.”

My throat freezes solid and I try to talk but I can’t. What does he mean? Why can’t I be Kokiri? What’s going on? Why is he telling me this now?

“I…” I manage to choke out. “Is there any way I can… I can become a Kokiri?”

“There is,” the Deku Tree answers. “But I need more time. There is a possibility that when you reach your eleventh year, when the leaves have fallen and the winter has arrived, that the Skull Kids will begin to dislike your presence. I have been putting off preparing defensive measures for you, but Zelda has assured me that she is skilled with swordsmanship. As such, I wish to return to you an heirloom of your mother’s so that Zelda may train you in its use.”

“My-my mother’s?” I yelp. “You knew my mother? What did she look like? Where did she go? Why did she leave me here?”

“When your mother arrived in these woods she was cloaked and grievously injured,” the tree says solemnly. “She joined the Stalfos of the woods. She entrusted you to me knowing that you would be safe in these woods.”

I feel like that should hurt, but it doesn’t. It’s pretty much what I guessed had happened anyway.

“What did she leave me?”

The Deku Tree begins to tug a root from the soil, dragging it free of the ground and scattering clods of dirt over the grass. Wrapped in the tip of the root is a small bundle maybe the length of my forearm.

“Take it,” he says. “It is yours,”

I reach out with shaking fingers and pull the bundle free, unwrapping the plain cloth wrapped around it. A plain black sheath made of wood encases what I think might be…

“A sword?” I ask in shock, pulling the narrow weapon from the sheath- to my chagrin, it doesn’t make the _shinng_ sound we always mimic in the plays; rather, a quiet, kind of wooden noise. I drink in the profile of the weapon carefully. The sword is long and straight, with a simple brass guard shaped like three sides of a square. Tattered ribbons hang from the base of the handle, and I can still see finger marks on the curved handle that surely must have been left by my mother.

“Yes, Link. It is a sword,” he says dryly. “And it is yours,”

I look up, resisting the urge to run a hand along the blade. That would be stupid even by my standards. Instead I hold it out in front of me, at first with both hands, but then I drop my right hand and leave it alone in my left. It feels kind of...warm. It’s comfortable, the hilt is just so fitted to my hand that it feels like it’s melting into my palm. I look up at the Deku Tree.

“Thank you,” I say, my voice oddly constricted. It’s so right, even though Kokiri never use weapons. “I mean…”

The Deku Tree lets out a long sigh.

“I want you to promise you will not use this sword to do wrong,” he says. “I want to hear no complaints of you threatening or harming anybody else.”

“W-what?” I’m thrown by the suggestion that he thinks I would do that. “I would never!”

He sighs again.

“I hope you will not have to,” he murmurs. “Please go, will you? And if you could, tell Fado I want to see her. Do not tell anybody what I have told you today, hear?”

I take a step backwards, looking down at the sword in my hands. I slide it back into the sheath with a crisp snapping noise, and clutching the weapon to my chest turn away.

“Oh, Link,” the tree suddenly says, and he sounds surprised, as if he hadn’t expected to speak either.

“Yeah?”

“If you win today, bring that with you,” he said.

“Why?”

“I have my reasons,” he says. “Now, go fetch Fado,”

Since I’m dismissed, I dash out of the meadow, the sword still in my hands. I suddenly think of something, and skid to a stop.

“Deku Tree,” I say. “What was her name?”

I hear the creaking of wood before he answers.

“Her name was Naraku,” he answers finally. I look at the blade in my hands. Naraku. The last thing I have left of where I came from; a name and a sword. I trace the brass hilt and leave the meadow, clutching my treasure to my chest as though someone might steal it away.

I turn and duck through the village, climbing one-handed up the ladder to my house. After some consternation I hide the blade under my bed. Possibly not the most original hiding place, but I doubt I’ll lose it under there. Climbing back down the ladder, I race back to the Forest Stage.

“Oi, Fado!” I yell as I descend the ladder. “Deku Tree’s looking for you,”

I make my way back to my costume back as Fado complains loudly, dressing as quickly as I can in monster boots, disgusting rag of a tunic, and bestial mask. I must look like an actual animal in this outfit. When I’m done I slide back down the wall, breathing in.

I’m not Kokiri.

I don’t understand how something like this has happened. And why I’m so calm about this. I’d have thought I would panic my face off at a revelation like this but it’s as if I’ve just been told my tunic is green. Like something completely unimportant and trivial. Maybe it’s because I know the tree’ll fix it. A temporary goof. The kind of thing that will only bother me late at night when I can’t sleep, and even then only if I don’t have Navi singing me to sleep like she usually does when she’s in a good mood. She has a beautiful singing voice.

“Okay! Soon as Fado gets back we’re on, everyone!” screams Timi. A flurry of movement ensues as Kokiri race for water jugs and costume pieces. I breathe in deeply. I’ll be a real Kokiri soon. I’ll be fine.

“Geez, what’s up with you?” says Saria, approaching. “He chew you out that bad, huh?”

“Not really,” I say. “I’m not in a very good mood right now, is all,”

“Aw, you okay?” she says sympathetically. “Need a hug?”

“Yeah,” I say, standing up and accepting the hug. She pulls back and offers a smile.

“You’re gonna kick Mido’s butt today, you know?”

“Yeah,” I smile back. “I will. Promise.”

“You seen Navi yet? She’ll want to wish you luck,” Saria asks. I wince.

“No. I’ll go now,”

I pull off the monster boots- I don’t like climbing ladders in them- and climb back out of the stage, walking back to my house and climbing the second ladder.

“Navi?” I call. “Navi!”

After a few moments she flutters in through the door.

“You calle- _wow,_ I _love_ your costume!” she squeals. I look down.

“Eh, it’s not that good. Timi made most of it.”

“That mask is really scary,” she comments, flying close to the rather disturbing face I painted on it.

“Thanks. I had a dream about a mask like this once. It was a cool mask,”

She taps it with a knuckle before flying in front of my face.

“Okay, spill. What’s up with you?”

I bite my lip.

“Deku Tree said not to say,”

She rolls her eyes.

“Please. I’m sure he wasn’t including me in that statement.”

“Okay then,” I say uncertainly. “He told me I’m not actually a Kokiri,”

She pauses.

“Oh,” she blinks. “Well then. He’d better try harder with that spell then, hey? Get on with it already,”

Her attitude is almost perfectly as blasé as mine.

“And he gave me a sword,”

“What?” she says in disbelief. “A sword? Show me!”

I duck under my bed and pull out the blade, yanking it free of the sheath and showing it to her. The fairy flutters closer.

“Wow,” she breathes. “This is a nice sword.”

“Isn’t it,” I agree.

“Hey, there’s writing on it!” she says suddenly. “Ancient Hylian,”

“What’s it say?” I ask excitedly.

“I...I’m not sure,” she mutters. “My Ancient Hylian’s a bit rusty. I think it says _hedil...hedil,_ uh, _hedil hal-ne. Hedil_ means ‘wake’, but _halne_ isn’t a word.”

"Are you sure that's what it says?" I ask.

"This might be _hekil,_ " she murmurs. "And maybe it's _halnk,_ not _halne._ The symbols for _e_ and _k_ are the same in Ancient Hylian, plus the blade's a little weathered. The third letter of _hedil_ or _hekil_ or whatever it is is quite weathered. I could be reading it wrong."

"So what do those mean?" I ask interestedly.

"Well, _hekil_ translates roughly to 'free'," she explains. "And _halnk_ isn't a word either, but _halne_ might be similar to _halnar,_ meaning 'cloth'."

She pauses, evidently proud of herself, before huffing.

“Ah, man, I dunno,” she says crossly. “I’m rubbish at Ancient Hylian and I don’t know what it says. _Hedil halne_ seems to be the best translation but I’m probably wrong.”

I shrug.

“Eh, cool history lesson,” I smile, putting the sword back in the sheath with that lovely clack. Navi looks at me.

“Where did the Deku Tree get this sword? It’s not the Kokiri Sword,”

“It was my mother’s,” I say, looking at the dark sheath. “Naraku’s.”

“Oh,” says Navi quietly. There’s a pause. “It’s nice that you have something of hers.”

Another pause.

“I’m glad I do,” I say warmly, putting the blade back under my bed. “Just something to remember my roots.”

The quiet conversation is interrupted by the triumphant cheers of an entire village’s worth of fairies.

“FESTIVAL TIME!” they scream together. I look at Navi.

“It’s time!”

“Good luck!” she says brightly. “Break a leg!”


	4. Figurative Monsters vs. Actual Monsters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The tale of the Sun Goddess and her daughter who was stolen by a vile beast, and the hero who fought to save her.

 

Squealing Kokiri swarm in droves towards the meadow and stagehands raise ivy curtains for the cast to run along behind to reach the meadow. I join them, bustled along between Somi and Timi. The redheaded Kokiri is pale as it gets and struggling to keep up in his enormous boots. The meadow grows dark as the Deku Tree draws his branches in tightly for shade, and Soti the propmaster is already tied to the branches- he’ll tug them apart so that light shines on the stage where we want it.

“Piggyback?” I offer the struggling Timi.

“Yeah, thanks,” he says anxiously, and I crouch. The miniscule Kokiri climbs onto my back and I straighten, jogging along with him. “Thank you so much,” he says.

“Nervous?”

“Yes!” he says indignantly. “What kind of asinine question is that?”

“I don’t know what asinine means.”

He sighs. “No matter how many times I do this I still get freaked out.”

“I know the feeling,” I offer him a smile over my shoulder. “Same with everyone,”

He sighs again.

“Don’t freak, Timi. We’ll be fine!”

“I know,” he half-smiles. “You guys are great,”

We reach the curtained-off area of the meadow, and I drop Timi. He immediately scuttles off, his ginger mop marking his progress through the crowd. I shove my way over to Saria, who’s looking quite good in a long dress that I think used to be a bedsheet., her usual kidney belt and a large hair bow.

“Nice costume,” I offer. She shrugs.

“Zelda’s is better,”

“Where even is Zelda?”

“Over there, by the door,”

I squint and eventually spot her, clothed in a tawny-coloured dress neatly sewn out of a curtain.

“Hey,” I protest. “She’s using all her jewellery, that’s no fair,”

She’s got all her copious bangles and hair clips and necklaces and even her gilded belt. Easily the most authentic costume thanks to that, and that’s not fair! She’ll win loads of extra points.

“Eh,” Saria shrugs. “She might lose marks because they’re metal.”

“True,” I nod. We’re not allowed to use metal for props, especially not weapons. Too dangerous.

“Do I get to see your mask?” she teases. “You’ve been working on it for _ages!_ ”

“Not until we’re onstage!’ I protest. “I want it to really scare you!”

“Oh man,” Saria breathes as Timi calls ‘ _positions!’_ “Good luck, Link,”

“You too, Saria,”

She strides forward onto the still-curtained stage, pulling the dark blanket over herself and laying flat on the stage. Several other Kokiri, dressed as star spirits or animals or villagers, tug identical blankets over themselves, fading to dark lumps on the stage. I, meanwhile, hide under the square trapdoor in the centre of the stage alongside Somi, Miray and another Kokiri whose face I can’t see. Each of them are dressed simply in dresses and wigs of red, blue and green. Peeking at the angled mirror reflecting what’s happening on the stage above, I watch as the curtains are drawn back and the trio beside me ascend to the stage, scattering armfuls of wildfairies around gently. I still love the genius idea of using fairies as props, and evidently so does the crowd as they coo in appreciation of the light show. Fairies looping in spirals, the trio of ‘goddesses’ scatter several over Mila’s blanket and Zelda’s; the Moon and Sun Goddesses throw aside their blankets and stand. I suck in a breath at the sight of Zelda; the fairy-light is reflecting awesomely off her jewellery and she looks serene enough to be a real goddess.

Zelda then passes a fairy on, guiding it to the next Kokiri; the animals and people throw off blankets. The fairies settle on the heads of the ‘stars’, providing light. Zelda reaches down, a fairy on each wrist, and gently removes Saria’s blanket. The North Star rises, fairies landing on her too. The trio leave the stage and Zelda and Mila start moving in slow circles. Villagers move along, Saria taking their hands and pointing them along with gentle words. The tree branches are being pulled apart and pushed back together, day and night, and the effect is awesome. Then Zelda and Mila stop; arguing, loudly, over the Moon Goddess wanting her own light instead of just reflecting the Sun’s. The Sun Goddess argues back, and in the commotion I recognise my cue.

Pulling my violet mask over my face, I ascend through the trapdoor and the fairies scatter away, the stage going dark around me. I suddenly wonder if I’m actually visible to the crowd, but too late. With a practised gait I lope on all fours towards Saria, then pounce forwards onto her, dragging her away. Shrieking fills the stage as the wildfairies scatter. I leer over her and freeze at the look on her face. Something’s wrong. She has a look of actual fear on her face, just for a split second, but it’s enough for me to recoil. Did I scare her? We practised this scene loads of times… my mask isn’t _that_ scary, is it? I stumble forward with my act, looking out at the crowd and doing the best animal scream I can. The Deku Tree sucks in a sharp breath. Should I tone down the act a little? But it’s too late, I have to get offstage. I pretend to drag Saria down the trapdoor and make sure to shut it behind me.

“Hoboy,” I breathe as soon as we’re off. “That was a mess,”

“Freaking hell, Link,” she hisses. “What the _hell_ is with that mask? You scared the crap out of me!”

I take a step back. “Wasn’t that the point?”

“Well, yeah,” she admits. “But still! Don’t do that to me! Did Soti know?”

“Yeah,” I nod. “He needed to see it to make sure it fit with the rest of my costume. He loved it,”

“Where’d you even get the idea for that?”

I shrug.

“Had a dream with a purple mask like this once,” I admit. “I’m pretty sure I got it wrong but it still looks terrifying, apparently.”

I totally miss the ending of Act 1 as the fairies and Kokiri applaud. The cast stream backstage for a short break, and Saria and I join them. Soti jogs around checking costumes, dragging needles through ripped bedsheets and being all-around awesome at his job.

“Holy hell, Link,” Timi says in shock. “What is up with that freaking mask?”

“It’s not _that_ scary!” I protest. Timi shakes his head.

“There’s just something about it that doesn’t sit right with me,”

“Is it the smile?” I look at the oversized, fanged smile curving around the lower half of the heart-shaped mask.

“No, no,” he shakes his head. “It’s the eyes. I think. There is something wrong with the eyes. I think we’re all going to have nightmares now,”

“You should take up mask making,”  Mila offers. “But don’t make scary ones like that,”

“Yeah,” Zelda joins us. “Something is wrong with that mask. It’s really, really bothering me.”

I huff.

“Geez, sorry,” I say. “If you want, I can go make a different one out of a few sticks,”

“Seriously? No!” Timi suddenly grins. “No way, if we have to scare the biscuits out of the audience we will,”

“Well then, what’s our problem?” I ask in confusion.

“No problem!” Mila swans off.

I blink.

“That defused quickly,” Saria comments. “But seriously, Link, a little warning would be nice next time,”

“Next time, I’ll show you beforehand,” I promise. She nods.

“Good,” she smirks.

“Your costume is great, Zelda,” I say.

“Oh, really?” she says in surprise, looking down. I raise an eyebrow.

“Well, yeah,” I say. “Of course it-”

“Okay! Act 2 positions!” Timi calls. “Audience’s gettin’ bored!”

“Come sit at the mirror with me,” I beckon. Saria follows and we sit down under the trapdoor, watching everyone scramble to their spots onstage. Someone plays a lilting ocarina tune and the curtains open to Mila and Zelda looking distraught, with the villagers wandering aimlessly around them.

“Something must be done,” Mila says.

“I believe that we need a hero,” Zelda responds, and I roll my eyes. Every single time there’s a powerful figure in Timi’s plays, they never do anything themselves. They always need to go find a hero. And it’s usually Mido playing the hero.

I sort of zone out for a while after that. I know what happens, I’ve been to the practices how many times now? I’m woken from my stupor a while later when Saria pokes me.

“We’re on,” she whispers. We loop around to the steps, climbing onto the pitch dark stage in front of a pile of rocks- the monster lair is a pile of rocks. I wait there on all fours, a little bored as Mido swans around with Timi. Mido is waving a wooden sword like an idiot while Timi is balancing on a tall staff. I suspect he actually needs the staff so he doesn’t stack it in those shoes, but it looks good with his wizard costume anyway.

Finally, Mido swans his way over to my ‘den’, brandishes his wooden sword and says ‘Fie, beast, release the maiden!”

I think I need to have a talk with Timi about his dialogue choices. Especially in light of recent events.

I step forward on all fours, hoping I don’t faceplant like I did a few times in practice. Moving on all fours is hard. I make a hissing noise at the back of my throat, and Mido brandishes his blade at me. Then my favourite part; bunching up my legs, I propel myself forward and head-bash the sword straight out of his hand. I nearly miss, and the horns of my mask end up being the part that catch the sword and rip it from Mido’s grip. Good thing I made this mask with horns. Mido shouts and “falls” backwards, slightly ruining the effect by catching himself before he hits the stage. I turn to Timi in his wizard costume and go to pounce, and he pretends to smack me hard with the staff as he yells something in gibberish. I drop myself backwards, wondering if there was a way we could have made that look more like a magic spell and less like Timi braining me with a stick. I scramble back to all fours and run into the den, where I’m confronted by Mido and Timi armed once again.

Aand my least favourite part; eating Saria. I back away and then lunge at Saria, pretending to eat her while she just shuffles behind the rock pile. Mido shouts in surprise, and I growl at them, clawing at them. Epic fight scene time, which largely consists of someone getting hit, jumping backwards and falling over, getting up and rejoining the fight. Finally, Timi shouts more gibberish and points his staff at me; I ‘barf’ up Saria, who scrambles away from me; and then finally Mido leaps forward and shoves his sword under my armpit with way more force than was necessary. I glare through the tiny eyeholes of my mask, hoping he gets the message, and let out a roar as I topple backwards, hoping that the way I’ve positioned my hair and the thick mask strap will stop this from hurting as much as it usually does.

It doesn’t, and I have to catch a yelp as I hit the stage with a thud. Fairies and Kokiri cheer as Mido takes Saria’s hand; Zelda and Mila ascend through the trapdoor to greet Saria, Mido gets a pat on the back, and _curtains!_ As soon as they shut completely I lift my head, standing up as the cast stream onto the stage for the bows.

 

**[/]{INTERLUDE- THE GRAVE ROBBER}[\\]**

The lights were dark in the Kakariko Graveyard; nothing stirred, no wind blew through the headstone, no Poe’s lantern creaked. The silence was absolute, and the woman standing before a certain grave dwelled on how to open the grave before her without awakening the keeper. She strode over to the tools shed, jimmying the lock and retrieving a shovel. Returning to the grave, she wriggled the point under the edge and levered up the gravestone, grunting with the effort, until it fell backwards with a thud. She winced at the sound, hoping nobody had woken at the sound. Sure enough, a gush of foul-smelling, cold air flowed from a new hole where the headstone had been, and the woman grinned.

 _Sheikah graveyards,_ she thought. _There’s always at least one grave with a secret._

Heaving the stone away from the hole, the robber looked around to make sure nobody was watching before she tied a rope tightly around the headstone and dropped the end into the hole. Tying a loop as a foothold, grinning fatalistically, she stepped into a pencil-dive into the hole.

When she reached the bottom, the grave robber lit a lantern, lifting it high to reveal her surroundings. A cold, miserable room reminiscent of a mausoleum surrounded her, the lantern’s pathetic light doing little to alleviate the blue hue of the area. She frowned. This wasn’t what she had thought would be here. A dank room with skeletons tossed around like junk? She stepped forwards carefully, not stepping on any bones that might suddenly decide they were a Stalfos. She reached the old altar, which was empty. She swore that her map had led here! There was no alternative! She looked around desperately, and was about to give up when she noticed the carving on the wall behind- the Sheikah emblem, the bleeding eye. A grin twisted her features as she pulled a knife from her belt and hurled it into the pupil of the eye with a practiced flick. Immediately, torches on either side blazed to life, and the grave robber grinned. Tricky little buggers, those Sheikah.

The wall turned out to be a door that scraped and slid out of her path as she stepped forwards, and resting on a pedestal was her real treasure. She sucked in a delighted breath as she saw it, stepping forward to claim it.

The Book of Mudora.

Its worn leather cover was grey with age; if it had ever said anything at all, she would never have known. She stepped forwards cautiously. She had learned from unfortunate experience that if a robber wasn’t careful a Lizalfos would drop down on their heads. No traps were evident, so the grave robber cautiously lifted the book from the pedestal. Nothing happened, and she grinned.

“My beauty,” she told the book. “How long I’ve been searching for you. You will make me very, very rich.”

The Book of Mudora was a priceless artefact, filled with prophecies and told to contain the words of a great prophet from many centuries ago. She opened the book, preparing to leaf through it to check its condition, and started. Rather than a page with the title of the book, as most did, there was a letter.

With her name on it.

**[/]{END OF INTERLUDE}[\\]**


	5. All Trees Fall on Fairies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Kokiri fight to be the best in the Greenleaf Festival, dedicated to the birth of the forest's fairies.

I don’t even have time to get undressed before Makar calls out that the footraces are starting. Panicking, I shed my clawed boots- I can’t possibly run in them!- and turn to Saria.  
“Do you think I have time to go grab my boots?”  
“Should’ve brought them with you, idiot. Take mine,” she says, lifting a foot to pull off her boots. “I’m not in the race, I’ll go grab yours while you run if you want,”  
“What, you don’t want to watch me beat Mido?” I taunt playfully, pulling on her boots and tightening the laces. They’re a little small for me, but improvisation is never perfect.  
“He’ll probably kick your butt, you know that, right?”  
“Eh,” I say vaguely. “I’ve been practicing,”  
‘Practicing’ refers to the roughly two hours I spend each morning running around the woods trying to find some of its hidden treasures.  
“Okay, I’ll be quick then,” she says, bolting off to my house. Straightening, laces tight, I jog over to the roughly toed starting line; straight down the main walkway of the village into the meadow, around the Deku Tree and back again. Easy enough. I hope.  
“On your marks!” bellows Makar. I pale as I realise I forgot what each one means; I glance to the side to mimic Soti’s posture. “Get set!”  
Everyone crouches simultaneously; I’m a step behind, but no matter. And then he shrieks “Go!” and I’m off, feet hitting the ground. I can feel every pebble underfoot; Saria’s shoes must have thinner soles than mine, but no matter, everyone’s running and I can’t fall behind! My breath is rasping up and down my throat, way colder than it felt a moment ago, and I pull ahead of Soti but Mido is still ahead and now Soti is overtaking me and I try to run harder but I stumble, I think I’m gonna fall, and by the time I’m upright again two more have passed me. We loop around the Deku Tree, and Saria’s boots skid a little as I turn too sharply. So close to the finish line but it feels like forever, and I finally cross it just after Mido and skid to a halt lest I faceplant in the pond. Kokiri cheer as I immediately double over and then land on my butt.  
I am never running that hard ever again. Ever.  
I’m mildly surprised when I’m presented with a yellow leaf. Second! That’s amazing! I look around; Mido, of course, is toting the green leaf, but I’m surprised to see Zelda packing the brown. Wasn’t expecting that. She’s shiftier than I thought, evidently. Someone grabs my arm and I flinch before I realise it’s just Saria.  
“Geez, Link,” she says. “You’re the colour of a beetroot,”  
“Never...going in the race...again,” I pant.  
“I do not blame you. Bet you’ve sweated up my boots, too.”  
“Sorry,” I wince, unlacing and pulling off the boots, stretching my toes gratefully. She tosses me my boots and sticks her own in the pond to wash them out.  
“These’ll be all gross now,” she teases. I stick out my tongue, pulling my own boots back on. That’s better. Now to the tree races!  
“Oi, Zelda,” Saria calls, and the blonde makes her way over to us still in her gold jewellery and long dress.  
“Good job, Link,” she says encouragingly.  
“How do you run in dresses like that?” Saria asks in disbelief. “That was insane,”  
She shrugs. “Impa wants me to be capable of defending myself. That includes being able to run in my normal attire,”  
I shake my head, finally standing up.  
“Nutjob,” I mutter. “Absolutely barmy,”  
She winks mischievously. “Damn straight,” she says. “Where to now?”  
“I have no idea,” I admit.  
“I’m going to do the jumps,” Saria says. “You guys wanna join in?”  
“Hell yes,” Zelda says. I raise an eyebrow.  
“In that dress?”  
Zelda reaches down, grabs the hem of her skirt, and somehow ties it in a knot above her knees, revealing tall, sturdy Kokiri boots.  
“I’ll be fine,” she says smugly. I shrug.  
“On your head be it,” I reach over and rap my knuckles on her little headwrap. “Let’s go, then,”  
We follow the edge of the lake around to the jumps area on the side, where a few Kokiri are wading into the water with the straw floater.  
“Hey, you guys jumping?” asks Timi, who’s shed his long wizard robe. “Cool! Do you think I can jump that far, though?”  
“For sure,” I nod. “It’s not that far in,”  
“We have to jump to that?” Zelda says in disbelief, staring at the floating platform.  
“Yeah,” Saria says impatiently. “And if you land but tip off the platform then it’s a foul,”  
“Basically, touching the water is a foul,” I add helpfully. Zelda frowns.  
“That’s not going to be easy,” she says. “And it’s a bit unfair on the heavier Kokiri,”  
“Oh, yeah,” Timi agrees. “Saria used to fail it practically every time she tried,”  
I blink as Saria punches Timi’s arm and he drops his wizard staff to clutch the wounded limb.  
“Ow! Sorry!”  
Normally Saria swats, not punch. Geez, that must be a soft spot then. But why? Saria’s not heavy. Well, in my memory, anyway. Who am I to know what she was like before I was around?  
Tactfully and skillfully, Zelda moves the conversation onwards.  
“So what do you get for winning?” she asks. “Like, I have this brown leaf from the races,”  
“You’re meant to tie it around your neck,” Timi says. “With the grass rope. You put all your leaves- green is first, yellow or orange is second, and brown is third- around your neck, and the two people with the most points get to climb inside the Deku Tree.”  
“You ever been in?” I ask.  
“Twice,” he says. “I won the first time, but Mido was around the second time and he thrashed me. Won by a mile. I think I was still at ground level when he reached the top,”  
“Oh, come on,” Zelda complains. “Why are the horrible people always the most talented ones?”  
“Way of the world,” Timi says wisely. “All trees fall on fairies,”  
“What?”  
“Kokiri saying,” explains Saria. “‘All trees fall on fairies, not Stalfos’. Pretty obvious meaning,”  
“That’s morbid,” she says with a frown. “Although it’s better than the Hylian equivalent. ‘Only the good die young’,”  
“All Kokiri technically die young,” Timi says slowly, “so that’d be redundant for us. Interesting, though. Mind if I put that in one of my plays?”  
“Uh, no problem,” Zelda says, slightly miffed. “I didn’t make it up,”  
“Everything’s original,” I say. “Just sometimes it’s someone else’s originality,”  
“Oh, I’m using that too,” Timi says brightly.  
“Go for it,” I nod. “Saria, you got anything to offer?”  
“Uh,” she pauses. “Nope. I’ll get back to you if I come up with anything,”  
“Thanks,” he says. “My plays could use some one-liners, and Mila and I just aren’t witty enough for them.”  
“You’re plenty funny,” I reassure.  
“Aw, shoot, Link,” he says warmly. “Thanks,”  
“We should line up,” Saria points out. “Bromance can wait. I don’t want to wait forever for my jump,”  
I sling an arm around Timi, having to tilt drastically sideways to accommodate for his height.  
“But bromance, Saria! Don’t interrupt it!”  
Timi laughs, swatting me away.  
“Stop it, you’ll make me blush,”  
We line up for the jumps, and after a few minutes Kokiri start running one at a time. Hilariously, most of them end up in the pond. It’s hilarious as they either jump too far, don’t jump far enough, or even hit the platform and skid straight off the other side. I carefully check how well they’re jumping; I don’t want to lose this one.  
Zelda ahead of me gives a brilliant effort but still ends up in the drink; Saria nearly skids off but manages to stop herself at the last minute. Timi does a spectacular job, a perfect jump. I swallow hard as I’m waved ahead; sprinting forward, my toes hit the edge as I push off and land on the platform. I nearly do the splits when I land, and I have to curl my toes hard into the ridged straw to stop myself fouling it. The next jump is much of the same, although this time I think I actually did touch the water and the judge didn’t see. I can’t tell if the water on my boot is from the pond or from the dripping wet mat. Either way, I’m cleared to go back around for a third jump. Timi high-fives me as I line up again.  
Zelda fouls her third jump, slipping backwards onto her butt and sliding straight into the pond with a yelp. I wince in sympathy. Saria makes the third jump easier than she did the first and second- she has long legs, so this is probably easier for her. Timi’s superb balance doesn’t fail him on this one, a perfect landing again. He’s going to win this, for sure. He’s doing better than Mido. He’s probably got awesome balance from running around on stilts all the time.  
I make the third jump smoother than my previous ones. Saria’s boot catches on her fourth jump and she bellyflops straight into the water; the crowd ‘Ooh’s in empathy. Timi pats her on the back as she climbs miserably out of the pond, then goes for his perfect jump again. Mido lands but capsizes the platform, splashing into the water loudly  
Before long it’s just me, Timi, Miray and Makar. It’s tense as we keep jumping; I don’t understand how Timi’s still making it. The mat’s nearly at the other side of the pond and the tiny Kokiri is still making it no problems. Miray repeats Mido’s earlier mistake and capsizes it, sliding off with a squeal. I’m the next to go, to my chagrin; I don’t jump far enough, my shins hit the platform and I sprawl across it before rolling off sideways. Paddling to the bank with my shins smarting, I watch Timi and Makar brawl it out until finally Makar makes a mistake and overjumps it; I wince in sympathy as he actually hits the opposite bank with an ‘oof’. Timi makes one last jump to secure his victory.  
“That was awesome!” I congratulate him. He smiles, embarrassed.  
“Shoot, Link, it wasn’t that good. Your shins okay? That looked painful,”  
“Eh, I’ll be fine,” I shrug it off. “Didn’t hit that hard,”  
Timi’s handed his green leaf, and he triumphantly loops it around his neck. I do the same with my brown leaf.  
“Good job, guys,” Zelda says encouragingly. “You’re totally going to win, Link. Mido sucked at that one,”  
Makar looks content with his yellow leaf, and I offer him a thumbs up.  
“What’re you guys doing next?” Timi asks.  
“Tree races,” Saria says immediately.  
“Tree race?” Zelda asks curiously.  
“Climbing trees as fast as you can and then using ropes to swing between them,” I explain. Timi shudders.  
“No, thanks. Almost broke my leg doing that once,”  
“Okay, I wanna do that!” Zelda says immediately.  
“Thought so,” Saria mutters. “This way,”  
We head to the edge of the thicker woods, where the course has been cordoned off by old wooden lattices from the gardens. Mido is swinging around checking all the ropes in the trees as Saria, Zelda and I pick our trees. The ropes are tied in such a way that each starting tree has its own route to follow, and Mido is double checking all of them. He stops at mine, tugging on the knot at the base to make sure it’s sturdy. When he’s content, he slides to the ground and chooses his own tree. This competition’s less popular than the footraces, if only because it’s rife with cheating. People deliberately swinging into eachother, people grabbing eachother’s ropes out of the way to hold them up, people distracting others by yelling warnings at them when there’s no danger… it’s a mess. I’m only in it for the points.  
Seated at the base of our trees, I look at Zelda.  
“Are you sure you want that tree?” I ask, concerned. “It looks pretty smooth. It’d be super embarrassing if you couldn’t get up it…”  
“I’ll survive,” she winks cheekily.  
“Ready?” calls Miray, since Makar’s participating in this. Zelda, Saria and I look at eachother; I have Zelda on my right and Saria on my left. We scramble to our feet, facing our chosen trees.  
“Good luck, guys,” I say, and get a murmured “Good luck” from both sides.  
“Go!” shouts Miray.  
Immediately I leap onto the tree, boots scrabbling for purchase in the relatively young and smooth bark. Each vestigial branch provides a perfect foot- or hand-hold as I reach the top of my first tree and reach out for the ropes. Now this is something I’m good at! Pulling on the rope, I kick off the first tree and sail forwards, reaching with one hand to grab the branches of the second. I swing forward as agilely as I can, reaching for the second rope. There are cheers but I barely hear them as I try and stop myself looking back to see where Mido is. Saria isn’t far behind me, but Zelda’s having trouble grabbing her next tree after a swing. Thankfully she’s taken off the long gloves she wore earlier; they would totally destroy her traction and probably become dangerous as the trees we reach get steadily older and taller.  
There’s a yelp off to my left as someone is nearly barged off their vine; I don’t stop to see who it is, but they cling on for dear life as they miss their opportunity to grab the next tree. I think I might actually be ahead! I reach my fifth tree, about four and a half metres tall. I miss it the first time and quickly swing back for a second shot, grabbing a branch and hauling myself onto it. I reach out and swing onto my next rope carelessly, kicking off straightaway. Big mistake.  
I’m already on the ground before I register the snapping of the rope.  
A choked breath is knocked straight out of me as I plough into the grass mats woven for this very purpose. It feels like there’s something crushing my chest and I can’t breathe and holy shit I think I’m actually dying I can’t breathe and someone’s screaming and then Navi’s broken ranks with the fairies and is buffeting my face and I can’t even talk and holy hell I’m actually going to die. Someone’s boots hit the ground beside me and Zelda’s there and she’s asking me if I can hear her but it’s not like I can freaking tell her because there’s not enough goddamn air to say so and she’s poking my chest and stuff and reassuring Navi that I’m fine I’m just winded but does she know I can’t freaking breathe and she’s trying to get me up onto my boots to get me to crouch and she keeps telling me to breathe and I want to ask her what the hell she thinks I’m trying to do and she’s gently rubbing my back and Saria’s there too helping her and I’m trying to tell her I can’t breathe and I think I’m going to die but she keeps making these stupid soothing noises as I finally get some slight wisps of air into my aching chest. Slowly slowly, the amount of air I can pull in rises until finally I can stop panicking and just breathe over and over until my chest decides to stop dying like the rest of me has.  
“Are you okay now?” asks Saria, concerned.  
“Y-yeah,” I stammer, voice shaky. “Ow.”  
There are Kokiri clamouring around; the race must’ve stopped when I fell or something, because most of the competitors are here too.  
“Oh, gods, Link!” Navi wails. “You have to stop hurting yourself!”  
“It wasn’t his fault!” Zelda admonishes sharply.  
“What actually happened?” I pant.  
“The rope just snapped. Like that,” she says, clicking her fingers. “It was so sudden. One minute you were way ahead of me and the next I couldn’t see you and I realised you were down,”  
“That’s a long way to fall,” Navi says, concerned. “Are you sure you’re okay?”  
“Well, don’t tell,” Zelda says softly, so the others can’t hear, “but I think you broke your arm, too. Don’t panic!” she adds quickly as all three of us start to do exactly that. I check both arms; one is slimy with what looks like a purple slime. It sparks when I touch it. “I healed it,” Zelda continues. “Healing minor breaks isn’t so hard. It might twinge a little but you’ll be fine,”  
“You can heal people with your magic?” Saria says in disbelief. “I thought that was a fairy thing,”  
“No,” Zelda shakes her head. “It’s a basic magic discipline. Light scrapes are easily healed, and minor breaks are next. Then big cuts and major breaks, then stab wounds and compound breaks. And some wounds can’t be healed at all. They just resist healing and nobody knows why,”  
“Th-thank you,” I stutter, wiping the slime off my arm.  
“Sorry,” she winces. “The goo is a side effect.”  
She wipes her palms, which are also covered in slime, on the grass mats, leaving violet smears behind.  
“Oh, Link,” says Navi sadly. “You gotta stop doing this. I must be the worst guardian fairy ever,”  
“Hey,” I reassure her. “It’s not your fault. You can’t protect me if I shove you in a jar,”  
I probably shouldn’t have said that. She clams up immediately.  
“You’re right,” she says. “I guess you lost this event,”  
“Actually, no,” says Miray. “Mido got first- he didn’t see you fall, I think, he kept going-”  
“Wolfos crap,” Saria says immediately, but Miray ignores her.  
“-but everyone else stopped. You and Saria were about equal, so it’s up to you who gets which leaf,”  
“Give Link the yellow,” says Saria immediately, to my shock. “He has a better chance of winning.”  
“What? No!” I protest. “Give it to Saria!”  
“Give it to me and I’ll smack you,”  
Miray meekly hands me the yellow leaf. I sigh in resignation.  
“Thank you, Saria,” I say softly. She smiles.  
“Kick Mido’s butt, eh?”

“Well,” Saria says a few hours later. “That has got to be the most competitive Greenleaf Festival ever.”  
Zelda nods. “I gotta admit, I didn’t realise climbing trees could be so competitive.”  
I nod. “That was super stressful,”  
Navi returns from a fly-over, landing on my head.  
“I can’t see anyone with as many yellows as you, Link,” she says, “so I hope they add up to enough to get you in,”  
We crowd around the Deku Tree, anxious to see who will get to race through the maze-like interior of our de facto father. There’s a long, pregnant pause as two non-guardian fairies finish tallying up the leaves and fly up to the Deku Tree, caught in quiet conversation. One looks around at me, and then flies towards me.  
“Link,” she says, “the Deku Tree says you need to go get something.”  
“What?” I ask in confusion. She rolls her eyes.  
“He reckons he told you to bring something and you forgot it,”  
I blink in surprise before I remember the sword.  
“Oh, hell!” I swear, turning on my heel and racing off to my house, grabbing the blade from under the bed. Does this mean I won? Navi hasn’t bothered to follow, probably due to laziness. I skid back into the meadow with the dark sheath in hand.  
“Whoa,” says Saria. “Crap, Link, is that a sword?”  
“Yep,” I say. “Deku Tree gave it to me,”  
“Why?” she asks in shock.  
I almost tell her before Navi interrupts.  
“It was his mother’s,” she says, and Saria pauses.  
“Oh,” she says. Then, “Can I see?”  
Turning my back on the crowd so they can’t see, I unsheath the blade. It doesn’t make that nice noise again- probably a good thing, because that’d attract everyone’s attention.  
“That’s a nice sword,” Zelda remarks. “I like the guard. It’s pretty,”  
“Swords shouldn’t be pretty,” says Saria crossly. “They’re tools of violence.”  
“Pardon me,” the blonde says crossly. “I still like the engravings,”  
“Quiet down, everyone!” The Deku Tree interrupts their bickering. “The results have been decided! The two Kokiri who will compete to open the fairy buds are…”  
There’s a long, long pause as he stops for dramatic effect. Vain old tree.  
“Mido and Link!” he says loudly, to shrieks of excitement and disappointment.  
“Holy hell,” I breathe in disbelief. “I actually made it!”  
Mido, who of course was expecting it, marches proudly up to the Deku Tree, and Saria squeaks with excitement, nudging me repeatedly. Navi whoops in joy.  
“Go on, Link! You could beat him any day!” she says brightly. I doubt that, but elbow through the crowd to stand beside Mido, still not believing my luck. He notices me and scowls.  
“No-Fairy? You’re the other one?”  
“You sound like you didn’t see it coming,” I comment. His face darkens and he looks away.  
“Children!” the Deku Tree announces. “Today has been a brilliant display of talent and confidence; before you stand your winners! They shall race through my trunk to reach my boughs, and whoever reaches them first shall have the honour of opening the first fairy-bud!”  
To Mido and I, more quietly, he adds “Be careful, both of you. This year is more dangerous than most; I am feeling unwell, and it is quite possible that there is a proper cause for this. If you should find yourself in any danger at all, simply crush this seed in your hand and you will be rescued. Understood?”  
The little fairies offers Mido and I a Deku seed each; Mido shoves my hand away and grabs the biggest one.  
I don’t see why.  
I take the seed and thank the fairy holding mine; it’s hard to see through her bright glow, but I think she might be smiling.  
“BEGIN!” the Deku Tree bellows, his mouth hanging open. Mido shoves me harshly to the side; the fairies and Navi squeal as they simultaneously shove me upright and manage to stop me faceplanting, as Mido vanishes into the Deku Tree’s mouth.  
“Come on, Link!” Navi screeches excitedly, zooming forward.  
“Thanks!” I call to the fairies, scrambling after Mido. I can hear Saria cheering, and I grin.  
I’m going to win this!


	6. A Wise Old Tree With A Vermin Problem

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Link and Navi race to reach the top of the Great Deku Tree, but they're not alone...

Practically as soon as I step inside the Deku Tree’s mouth the air becomes thick and gluggy. It seems to take two breaths to get as much air as usual.

“Wow,” I say, pausing to look around. Mido’s eyes are zipping around, analysing every difference. “Don’t you already know where to go?” I ask him. He rolls his eyes.

“Don’t be daft,” he says crossly. “It’s a tree. He grows like any plant. Last year’s first floor is up there,”

He points somewhere about ten metres off the ground. “The upper floors generally get squashed into eachother at the top, and almost all of the exits I used last year will be blocked now.”

“How do you know there actually is an exit?” I ask worriedly. “What if all the passageways have been blocked up?”

He shrugs. “The Deku Tree must control his own growth or something. I dunno. Stop bothering me,”

He walks over to an ivy-covered wall and starts climbing up it. Edging around a large, cobweb-coated hole in the ground, I make to follow, and he shoots me a filthy look and drops to the ground.

“What are you doing?” he asks crossly. I raise an eyebrow.

“Trying to solve the maze?” I offer. “Did I miss the memo? Was I supposed to be doing something different?”

“Don’t follow me,” he says rudely, turning away. Neri, his fairy, flutters down to us.

“Try waiting,” she suggested. “That’s what usually happens. Wait ‘til Mido’s gone and then follow,”

“And lose that time?” I ask in shock.

“That’s not fair, Neri,” Navi says angrily. “You should teach Mido better,”

“He is what he is,” she shrugs. “I don’t control Mido. Same way you evidently have no control over Link,”

Navi makes a furious noise, her glow pulsing an angry red, and I glare as the fairy flutters away indifferently.

“That’s one fairy I wish a tree would fall on,” I comment. Navi glares.

“Be nice,” she says immediately. She’s probably dying to demonstrate that she  _ is  _ a good guardian. “Don’t say nasty things about others,”

“Even if they deserve it?”

“Especially.”

“Well, then,” I shrug. “Let’s get back to solving the puzzle.”

I turn my back on Mido and he yelps.

“What’s that on your back?”

Before I have time to react, Mido’s grabbed my new sword and pulled it free of the sheath. I yelp, wheeling around and try to snatch it back.

“That’s mine!” I protest.

“A  _ sword? _ ” he says in shock. “Good grief, what do you need with a  _ sword? _ ”

“Mido,” warns Navi.

He turns the blade so it catches the gloomy light. There’s a dangerous look on his face and I take a step back. 

“If you don’t mind, I’ll be borrowing this,” he says, tucking the sword through his belts. My jaw drops open.

“What? No way! Give that back!”

“Mido, that’s his!” Neri says.

“I’m only borrowing it,” Mido says stubbornly. “I don’t trust you not to start slashing up the tree. I’ll be telling the Deku Tree that you have a sword! You don’t follow  _ any  _ rules, do you?”

“He knows I have it!” I protest, trying to grab the hilt. He leans backwards out of my range. “Please, Mido, I’m serious. That’s mine,”

He scowls.

“If the Deku Tree is okay with it, you can have it back after the contest. Now stop wasting my time!”

He stalks back to the ivy wall and starts climbing it.

“N-Neri!” yells Navi. “Are you just going to let him do that?”

“He has a point,” says the darker blue fairy guiltily. “Are you sure he has permission to have that sword? Weapons aren’t allowed. You know that, Navi, even if you’re so young.”

“You’re...you’re the worst guardian ever!” she says furiously. “Who do you think you are?”

“I’m just trying to help,” she says soothingly. “I’ll make sure he doesn’t break it or anything. And I’ll make sure that he doesn’t keep it afterwards. We’ll bring it to the Great Deku Tree. If he says you can keep it, we’ll bring it back. If not, we’ll put it with the other Kokiri swords,”

“But the Deku Tree gave it to me,” I say plaintively. She winces apologetically.

“If he really did, you’ll get it back as soon as the competition’s over. It’s okay,”

Navi sniffs, but her red hue slowly bleeds back into her natural blue.

“You better get a grip on Mido,” she says grumpily, looking at the Kokiri who’s already halfway to the ledge. “He’s never been the nicest to Link,”

“It’s normal behaviour for a child,” Neri shakes her head. “You’d be mad at Link too. Anyway, I’d better go. Good luck, you two,”

She flutters off, rejoining Mido. I sigh.

“I’m sorry,” Navi says guiltily. “I should have made them give it back,”

“It’s not your fault,” I reassure her. “And what did she mean,  _ you’d be mad at Link too? _ What am I supposed to have done?”

“Long story. I’ll tell you later,” she says. “Do you want to wait for Mido, or try a different way?”

I look around. There are no passageways on this floor, and Mido’s monopolised the only way up. I look at the hole in the centre, covered in thick webbing. I don’t want to see the spider that left that.

“What’s down there?” I ask. 

“The roots,” Navi says. “Some of the roots are hollow. They’re used as tunnels by the Deku Scrubs sometimes.”

I reach out with a toe and prod the webs; they don’t even budge. Gingerly, I step forwards onto them. To my amazement, they hold my weight with only a bit of flex.

“Geez, this is heavy-duty spiderweb,” I lift my foot with some difficulty; my boot is stuck to the web. “Reckon you can fit through the gaps and go see down there?”

“Sure!” she says delightedly. “Very intuitive, Link.”

“What?”

“Well, Neri complains that Mido never asks for her help even when she has an advantage over him, like if he’s too short to see something while she has wings,”

“Seems a little redundant,” I mutter. “After all, what else are you good for?” I add jokingly, poking Navi in the stomach. She lets out a mock-offended huff, but her unblemished glow lets me know she knew I was joking.

“Okay, here I go,” she says, flying very slowly through gaps in each layer of web. I crouch, really hoping that it doesn’t give way beneath me. She clears the web and wings her way downwards, her glow becoming smaller and smaller.

“See anything?” I call. I hear her hum.

“There’s a huge pond down here,” she says in disbelief. “Like,  _ huge  _ huge. You could probably fall down here and survive it- but don’t. I really don’t want to explain to the Deku Tree that I let you jump fifty feet.”

“Oh, you’re no fun,” I deadpan. “What else?”

“Well,” she adds, “there’s a load of root tunnels, but there’s something weird with the sound down here. It’s not echoing like it should. I’m just gonna fly to the wall, okay? Don’t freak out.”

She flutters out of sight and I wait for her return, trying not to think of how big a head start Mido is getting. Suddenly I hear conversation from below; who’s down here for Navi to talk to? I hear an excited squeal from Navi and squash myself closer to the web as she comes zooming back into the visible area, a bright green flare indicating her excitement.

“What is it?” I ask hurriedly.

“There’s a way up from the roots!” she says, tripping over her own words joyfully. “There’s a maintenance Scrub down here and he just told me!”

“A-are you sure?” I say, starting to get excited. “Because if I go down there and there isn’t a way up I’ll have to flee with the seed, ‘cause there’s no way I could climb back up here!”

“Are you sure?” Navi asks the Scrub, who must be off to the side somewhere.

I hear the odd trumpeting sound of a Scrub straining to speak Hylian. It’s not the kindest language on a race with no lips- there are huge, entire sections of the Hylian syntax that Scrubs simply can’t say because they have no tongue, teeth or lips. In fact, pretty much any consonant gives them trouble.

“He’s sure!” Navi says. “Hold on, I’m coming up,”

Her light comes closer and closer, still pulsing green excitedly. When she’s about half a metre away she abruptly jerks to a halt with a yelp.

“You okay?” I ask.

“Caught my wing,” she responds in a muffled voice. “Gimme a- oh,  _ hell, _ ”

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m stuck,” she says, turning navy with embarrassment. 

“Seriously?” I ask in disbelief, craning my neck. Sure enough, her wings are stuck in the web, as are her legs and one arm she must have been trying to free herself with. “Gimme a second, I’ll get you loose,”

I dig chewed fingernails into the thick web, trying to pull a hole in it. Instead, the stuff stretches like syrup, and I eventually let go as my straining joints feel like they’re three times larger than they really are.

“I can’t break it,” I say worriedly. Navi huffs.

“You know what would be helpful right now?  _ A sword. _ ”

“No kidding,” I mutter, going for my pouch and digging around in the extensive collection of rubbish kept in there. I come up with an old Wolfos tooth I found last year. I’d been meaning to make an ornament with it. Leaning forward, the tooth between my fingers, I try to cut the web with the sharper edge, eventually resorting to stabbing the web then dragging the tooth’s point. “I think the fibres are breaking a little,”

“We’ll be here for  _ hours, _ ” Navi says miserably. “I’m so sorry,”

“Hey, don’t apologise,” I assure her. “I’ll be fine,”

“Aw, Link,” she says. “You could leave me if you wanted,”

“What? No!” I protest. “Why the hell would I do that?”

“I dunno,” she admits. “I thought I’d offer anyway, just in case you-”

She breaks off abruptly, her glow flaring to a shuddering yellow. It’s a colour I see often on Navi; the last time I saw it though was earlier today, when I fell out of the tree. Yellow is fear. Her eyes are huge, fixed on something above me; I slowly turn around to see an enormous spider who doesn’t look impressed to find a boy playing in his web.

**[/]{INTERLUDE- MIDO}[\\]**

“You know, maybe you should throw it next year,”

“No, Neri,” Mido says again. “I’m not going to deliberately lose!”

“But think about it,” the fairy tries. “You must have enough Greenleaf leaves to make your own forest by now. You’ve won almost every time for the last twenty years. Isn’t it getting old by now?”

He has no intention of telling her, but the answer to that is yes.

“And just then, with the sword,” she adds. “That was a little rude, don’t you think?”

“Don’t tell me you’re listening to  _ Navi, _ of all people,” he retorts snarkily. “We all know that Link can do no wrong in her eyes. Everything is her fault, not his,”

“Some fairies are like that,” Neri says diplomatically. “You have to remember, we didn’t do a very good job raising him. Navi is essentially trying to train him into Kokiri society from scratch. He doesn’t  _ want  _ to listen to her because he’s never needed to,”

Mido winces. That sounded like Neri was trying to tell him something.

“And before you ask, yes,” she says immediately. “That’s me comparing you to Link,”

“Please,” he snorts. “No-Fairy is nothing like me. Good grief, Neri, you must be wearing a blindfold if you can make that assumption and actually believe it,”

“Well, I am a little blind in my right eye,” the fairy comments humorously, “but that’s not what I was saying. What I meant was that you never listen to me. Seriously, everything I suggest goes in one ear and out the other,”

“I’d listen if they were ever  _ good  _ ideas,” he says sourly. Neri’s hue darkens slightly.

“Think about it,” she says again. “Sure, you win every year, but you don’t have any fun doing it,”

“It’s plenty fun,” he says dismissively. “I don’t need you to tell me what’s fun or not,”

“And there’s the problem!” the fairy points out, exasperated. “ _ You don’t need me. _ If you don’t need me, tell me why I was assigned to you, huh?”

“Oh, for the love of- Neri, I like having you around, when you’re not being bossy. But being bossy just makes you look like a prat.”

Their conversation is interrupted by a sharp howl of terror from the main room. Neri pales immediately.

“What was that?”

“You think I know?” Mido snaps, trying to find a passage back to the main room. He emerges several storeys up, looking down on the central area. To his shock, he sees No-Fairy, armed with a stick, trying to assault a spider; Navi’s screams are still echoing around the tree, which creaks with worry. Mido and Neri look at eachother.

“Do something!” the fairy shrieks at him. He fumbles, staring down. What’s he supposed to do? Sure, he doesn’t like Link, but he can handle himself, right? Mido is quickly proven wrong as the spider deftly disarms Link and the Kokiri stumbles backwards, looking for something else to defend himself with. It’s at that point that Mido remembers the sword at his belt; he pulls it free and looks at Neri questioningly.

“Do it!” she panics, looking like she wants to fly down and attack the spider herself. Mido stares at the spider, pulls back his arm and hurls the sword with all his strength.  _ Please don’t miss.  _ It would be an excellent lookout if he impaled Link by accident.  _ Please don’t miss. Please don’t miss. _

Somehow, he didn’t miss.

**[/]{END OF INTERLUDE}[\\]**

All sorts of creative language spills from my mouth as I back away, armed only with a Deku Stick. The spider is completely silent, which is even scarier than if it had made clacking noises like I thought spiders did.

“ _ Link, _ are you okay?” Navi is screeching. I don’t respond, smacking the spider over and over with the stick until it suddenly lifts one huge leg and bats the stick down and out of my hand. I panic. It’s going to kill me! Backing away, I hit the wall as the spider advances; I duck to avoid a sudden lunge and find myself on the ground. As fast as I can, I crawl out under the spider and emerge on the other side; it awkwardly turns around and pounces. I throw my hands up, trying to hold it away from me; I want to try and grab my seed, but that would weaken my hold and kill me. I want to kick it in the gut and run, but that would weaken my hold and kill me. The more time I have to try and come up with escape plans, the longer the list gets of things that will kill me.

And then, somehow, my problem is solved for me. The spider abruptly jerks, then yanks itself off me and skitters around before making a piteous noise and curling up. The source is clear; right at the back of what I think is its neck is...my sword? I look up. I can’t see Mido, but I can see the glow of Neri beside one of the ledges.

“Th...Thank you!” I yell, trying not to sink to my knees now that the adrenaline has faded. I’m met with an obnoxiously loud, noncommittal huff, and the light vanishes after Mido.

“Link, what happened?” Navi asks, still hysterical. I stumble to the hole.

“Mido saved me,” I say in astonishment. She stops struggling in surprise.

“ _ Mido? _ ” 

“Yep. Impaled it with my sword,”

She pauses.

“Huh,” she says.

Another pause.

“Want to use that sword to cut me loose?”

“Oh!” I straighten, looking at the spider, which is deathly still. “Didn’t even think of that,”

My arms and legs feel jittery as I walk closer to the dead spider;  _ gods  _ I hope it’s actually dead. Having to squint extra hard to focus, I put my boot on the spider’s back and wrap my hands around the sword hilt. I yank it free with a ghastly noise, holding back the immediate retching that wants to empty my stomach at the sound. Oh gods that’s disgusting!

_ Just a spider, _ I soothe myself.  _ You squash spiders all the time. _

Still shaky, I cross back to Navi. I feel like there are little spiders all over me as I hack at the webbing. It barely makes a dent; more effective than the tooth, for sure, but the webbing is still winning.

“I don’t know how to break it!”

Navi hums, pondering.

“Are there lanterns in here?” she asks.

“Yeah,” I say, looking around. There’s thick glass (courtesy of Timi) encasing all of them, so that they can provide light but not burn the tree.

“Thought so,” she nods stiffly. “I had to light them a few years back. Okay, reckon you can smash one and burn the webs?”

“Won’t that burn you?” I ask worriedly.

“If I’m fast enough I’ll get free from the loose strands before I get chargrilled,” she responds humorously. “Come on, it’s crushing my chest,”

I grab a lantern off the wall, looking at Navi one last time before slamming it against the ground. The glass shatters and the candle inside flickers wildly; I shove the broken lantern into the web, which ignites at once. The fire succeeds where my sword failed, burning through the sticky strings in seconds. I stamp out the edges of the flame trying to catch on the sides of the hole. With a grunt of exertion, Navi pulls herself free, going into several uncontrolled spirals before managing to regulate her wingbeats. She lets out a long breath as I peer down the hole.

“Please, can we get out of here?” she begs.

“No!” I protest. “We have to beat Mido! He’s not far ahead, we have a chance!”


	7. Tea Party with the Spider Queen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Link's first battle, against the great arachnid Gohma.

I look down into the hole, Navi beside me.

 

"I don't like this idea," she says nervously. "It's too high up,"

 

I look at her. "Well, what I reckon we do is have you drop down there and open your wings at the last minute. See how you slow down,"

 

She blinks in astonishment.

 

"Link," she says, "that will hurt. A lot."

 

"Oh," I pout. "Okay, next suggestion?"

 

Navi hums thoughtfully, then turns to look at the ivy on the walls.

 

"We could pull some of that down," she suggests. "Use it as a ro- what are you doing?"

 

Gritting my teeth, I step off the solid ground, pinwheeling my arms as I drop inside the enormous hole. She shrieks as I plummet, squeezing my eyes shut as I try to fall toes-first. I hit the water with a loud splash, and I struggle to kick upwards as I squeeze my eyes shut and blow air out my nose. I've never been the best swimmer. I breach the surface, sodden, and Navi dive-bombs me again shrieking various panicked statements.

 

"I'm fine!" I reassure her, flicking dripping hair out of my eyes. She fixes me with a gimlet eye.

 

"You are just determined to get yourself killed today, aren't you," she says scathingly. "Come on. I want to get out of here,"

 

I drag myself to the bank, where I see the small Scrub Navi was talking to leaning over me. It trumpets something- probably trying to say follow me, and I climb awkwardly out of the pond.

 

"Thanks," I snort water out of my nose. The Scrub toots again, waddling off towards a particular narrow tunnel. Squeezing the water out of the bottom of my ratty monster tunic, I follow the squelchy footsteps of the Scrub down one of the root tunnels, crouching to avoid bumping my head. The air is thick and barely breathable. The tunnel loops back around, and the Scrub toots to grab my attention as he stops in front of a clearly artificial doorway leading back into the Deku Tree, but in an area I don't recognise.

 

"Are you sure we can get to the top from here?" I ask Navi uncertainly. It feels like we've gone somewhere that we're not meant to.

 

She jabbers something at the Scrub in Deku, and he jabbers right back.

 

"He says he's sure," Navi nods. "There's handholds all the way up. Scrubs go up there sometimes to gather Deku Leaves,"

 

"So it's a permanent passage?" I ask in disbelief.

 

"By the sounds of it, yeah," Navi frowns. "Wonder why nobody's found it during previous festivals. Surely we're not the first to go down the hole in the trunk,"

 

"Scrubby here probably wasn't there to help anyone else," I answer. "Reckon that's cheating,"

 

"Eh, it's not cheating. It's making use of offered aid."

 

"Perfect," I decide as the Scrub toddles towards another tunnel. This one looks wide open, but dark; the only light appears to come from the Scrub's glowing orange eyes. He wanders in and suddenly stops dead.

 

"What's up?" Navi asks in concern, but the Scrub is frozen. He starts jabbering in Deku, and Navi translates. "He says there's something down that tunnel," she says in concern.

 

"Please not another spider,"

 

"It's probably another spider," Navi moans. "Let's just go. Mido's probably at the top by now anyway,"

 

"No!" I protest immediately. "I won't give up! Come on,"

 

I pull out my sword, which to my disgust still has spider gloop on it. Gross! I grab a fistful of the filthy tunic and wipe the blade as clean as I can get it. That was an amazing shot by Mido, and I don't really fancy facing another one on my own. I seriously can't believe how easily he got rid of it from several stories up. If I tried that, I'd either miss completely or hit the spider with the handle of the sword rather than the blade. If we were on better terms I'd be badgering him to teach me his secrets.

 

"Oh, Nayru…" Navi whines, before gritting her teeth and glowing as bright as she can. "Follow me, then,"

 

Her blue light illuminates the tunnel, but I can't help but shiver with the nerves as the twin orange eyes fade into the darkness behind us. The monochrome colouration of everything around me -thanks to Navi- makes this somehow even creepier. I'm seriously rethinking my decision to come down here, and I'm just itching to grab Navi and the seed and get out of here as fast as I can. Instead I square my shoulders and keep walking, breathing the increasingly earthy air. I don't even want to know what would happen if this root tunnel gives way with the weight of the Kokiri Forest pressing down on it.

 

Long minutes drag on before either of us speak. It's Navi who breaks the silence.

 

"I think there's something ahead," she says nervously, her wings already shedding anticipatory healing dust. "You better be ready, you massive idiot,"

 

"I am," I say stubbornly, my hand locked in a white-knuckle grip around the hilt of my sword. I quicken my pace, and stop as the tunnel abruptly widens off into an enormous dome. I look at the walls beside me; they look ragged, chewed. Not the smooth, damp wood of the root tunnels. This looks like something's been literally eating the Deku Tree. I glance at Navi, who looks just as sick- she's come to the same conclusion.

 

"What's the bet this is why the Deku Tree isn't feeling well?" I ask quietly. I look around. "And I doubt this is the only damaged root,"

 

"This is bad," whispers Navi. "What's causing it?"

 

"You think I know? Should we go out and warn the Deku Tree, or stay and figure out what's causing this?"

 

She hesitates.

 

"Well," she says, "if we left, the Deku Scrubs would likely be sent down. But if it really is another spider, I don't think Deku Scrubs could handle it. Their main defense is spitting nuts,"

 

"And I have a sword," I finish, looking at it. Navi looks panicked.

 

"I-I mean, it's not like I want you to keep going," she says quickly. "But if we do get jumped, you have a b-better chance of winning than a Deku Scrub,"

 

"Do you have any tricks up your sleeve to help me with?" I ask her, pulling my slingshot and seed pouch out as well. She raises an eyebrow.

 

"I don't have sleeves," she says, fluttering over to a wall. She wraps her tiny hands around one of the larger splinters and yanks it free, smacking the back end against the wall a few times to blunt it off. "But if anything that's not you comes near me I'll stab it in the eye with this,"

 

"Good plan," I nod. "Now let's explore."

 

"Yay," she says flatly.

 

We move forwards quietly, avoiding any and all unnecessary noise (at Navi's suggestion). Her glow almost imperceptibly starts shifting slowly towards a yellow colour.

 

"Be prepared," she hisses. "Something's nearby,"

 

I swallow hard against my dry throat, hearing every breath twenty times louder than it really is. My vision swims a little bit- Navi suddenly looks both right beside me and half the room away at once. This isn't right. I feel hyperaware of everything around me; every scuff of boot, every click of Navi's wings anxiously tapping together, every hair standing up on my skin. It's so wrong and yet I love it. I actually like this sense of knowing everything around me. It's like I'm totally in tune with my surroundings; a minute change in them couldn't go unnoticed by me. I carefully breathe in, the earthy scent coating my nose and making everything seem just that tiny bit more exciting. I love this.

 

"Link," whispers Navi, and her voice seems a thousand times louder than it usually is. "There's something in here with us,"

 

My eyes immediately rake the room, searching for any slight shadow, any tiny inconsistency with the blue-illuminated darkness of the enormous cavern. I lock onto a shadow at left, and shrug my left shoulder at Navi.

 

"What is it?"

 

I shrug the shoulder again and she less-than-subtly turns to the left; the shadow suddenly jolts and opens an enormous, glowing eye. It skitters upwards, scooting straight up the wall.

 

"Spider," I sigh, tracking it as it dashes upwards. Shoving my sword through my belt, I pull out a stone for my slingshot and aim at the spider; to my eternal happiness I get to have the bragging rights for nailing it in the eye in one shot.

 

"Damn," Navi says in appreciation as the spider drops to the ground with the crack of its exoskeleton breaking. "Good shot,"

 

"I do have some talents," I remind her, drawing my sword again.

 

And then I have very little time to regret my life choices before I register a very bright orange light above me. Navi screams as something drops to the ground heavily, just behind me, sending me stumbling desperately forwards out of its way. So much for being totally in tune with my surroundings.

 

As soon as I have enough space to do so I wheel around, and almost drop my sword right there and then. If the last spider was huge, this one just broke the scale and possibly the universe said scale was located in. Holy crap. No freaking wonder the Deku Tree's been sick; having this behemoth spider gnawing on your roots would put any smaller tree to bed permanently.

 

"N...Navi?" I stutter. "Any ideas?"

 

She glows a resounding yellow in response.

 

"I...uh...I think we should run for it,"

 

The spider is staring me down. I stay as still as I can, not breaking eye contact with that enormous eye that's probably the size of my entire torso.

 

"I don't think it will let us run," I respond evenly. "Where do I hit it?"

 

"W-well, the eye worked well on the last one, she says, looking at the curled dead spider I just shot. "It probably will for this one, too,"

 

"Okay then," I murmur. "Try not to get stepped on,"

 

"I have no intention of going near those feet," she practically whimpers. "Oh my gods, Link, please don't get hurt,"

 

"It's not like I'm trying to," I say, unnerved by the fierce stare the spider is giving. I make a snap decision and leap forward; the spider doesn't even have time to pounce before I rake my sword along one leg. Rather than being met with the sound of a leg being severed, I'm rewarded instead with an alarming clank as my sword smashes into the leg and bounces straight off. Crap! I dodge down as the same leg comes swinging over me, dropping momentarily to all fours then pushing myself back onto my feet. Okay, so getting in close isn't going to work.

 

I back right off, opting to fall back on my slingshot. Stone after seed after pebble is released at the spider, but my hands are shaking so badly that I keep shooting the bony plates around its eyes and just pissing it off more. My range is quickly negated by a giant freaking ray of fire blasting straight out of the spider's eyeball. I don't even bother stopping my scream as I barely manage to leap out of the way, the dirt and wood in the ray's path igniting briefly before smouldering out, unable to take hold of the damp surface. The spider is still for a moment, and its eye looks unfocused before it suddenly snaps back to attention and starts advancing again. It gets too close for comfort, so I loop around it and nearly slip over on a slick, foul-smelling trail of slime that leads straight from the spider to where it dropped from the roof, an enormous splattering of thick gloop all over the floor.

 

"N-Navi, what is that stuff?" I yelp, struggling for traction as I crawl out of it and to the dry ground. It's like the bottoms of my shoes have been turned into lye soap, and I'm forced to rip them off as fast as I can and stand barefoot on the scratchy, earthen ground. There's no way I can fight if I'm sliding around like a lunatic.

 

"I dunno!" she yells, flying as close to the puddle as she dares. "It stinks though!"

 

"I-ack!-noticed!" I yelp, dodging out of the way of another swiping, thorny leg. That eye follows me relentlessly, never needing to blink. I watch as Navi tracks the slime trail, and then for a second she flushes a deep green.

 

"Oh, Nayru," she says in disgust.

 

"What?" I yell, racing across the room to give myself some range before I go for the slingshot again.

 

"It's eggs!" Navi cries. "She's laying eggs!"

 

Okay, that's disgusting. I'm fighting an egg-laying giant spider that's dripping egg slime everywhere. I almost feel guilty for disturbing a nesting mother before a second ray of that terrifying fire razes across the ground, and I can't help the animalistic whine that drips from my throat as my slightly-off timing gets me a blistering burn across my shin. This time part of the wall ignites, although it doesn't spread, but I have no time to put it out. The spider freezes again, just like it did after the last beam, its pupil twitching spasmodically.

 

"Now!" shrieks Navi, and I don't question her judgement, sweeping my slingshot upwards and loosing another rock in the spider's direction. It lets out an earsplitting noise of agony, stumbling backwards over its many legs, backing right up to the wall before tripping itself up to land on its rear end with a tremendous cracking noise. It lays there, stunned, and I take my chance, sprinting forwards with my sword to slash at the giant eye. It thrashes in pain, making that same unceasing banshee scream. I howl in pain when the beast lets out a ghastly sound that rips straight through my ears as one leg finally hits me, slamming me straight into the wall with a sick feeling jolting through my body that I hope wasn't anything breaking. I lay there for what seems like forever, trying to register which part of me is which and which parts are injured and which aren't. My ears are still ringing with the spider beast's cry; I see Navi fly up to me, pull up one eyelid, her yellow glow so bright it's blinding, I can see her mouth moving but I can't hear any of it, and she lets my eyelid go and vanishes from sight, and my gods it hurts, and then something- Navi?- is dragging my arm and I can feel the noise tearing itself from my throat but I definitely can't hear it and my gods Navi stop what are you doing that hurts and my arm flops onto the ground with an agonising jolt before an abrupt numbing sensation that's nearly scarier than the pain spreads through my back and leg and neck and then Navi flies over my arm smacking her wings together to shed healing dust- of course, fairy dust- over my injuries, then she flies up to my head and shakes her wings over my forehead and I gag at the feeling of flesh crawling its way back together over a wound. She flies back to my face, looking at me anxiously. Again, her mouth is moving but I hear no sound, and I drag one hand up to my ear and scratch at it, what's wrong, what's wrong, and Navi's face contorts as she flies up to my ear and shakes more fairy dust straight down the ear canal, I can feel it trickling in, and sound returns with a painful and unbalanced jolt.

 

"-my gods, holy hell oh my gods Link can you hear me now, oh my gods Link-"

I try to choke out her name but instead hawk up a ball of spit before trying again.

"Nnnavi, I-I'm g-g-good,"

"Link!" she yelps. "Oh gods, roll over, I need your other ear!"

I grunt in pain, struggling to tip up my squashed ear, and the fairy flies straight to it and then sound returns in that ear too. Pins and needles start working their way into my limbs as the numbing dust starts to wear off, leaving healed but tingly sensations behind them.

 

"Thank you," I croak, and Navi's wings look completely lacklustre as she hugs my nose. I look over to the giant spider, which is still thrashing on the ground. It's not dead. And if it's not dead my job isn't done. It looks pretty well incapacitated, but I don't know how to get close without getting injured again. Mido killed the last one by just stabbing it through its shell, but then, the other one probably had less shell. And the sword had gravity on its side. "Ideas, Navi?"

 

She turns that gimlet eye on the spider, which has got a few of its legs under it. It's trying to push itself back up now, and its eye is ragged and gross; I can see pus-coated flesh hanging loosely, and from the way the spider is bumping into the wall repeatedly I think I might have blinded it. That glow hasn't stopped, though; I wonder abruptly if it's going to blast me with another beam of fire. The beast finally makes it onto all eight legs, still making piteous noises. Thick drops of an unknown substance work their way out of the mangled eye, joining the egg-slime smeared over the floor.

 

"I think your best bet is to sneak up as quietly as you can and stab your sword straight in its eye. Or its gut, if you can get there,"

"N-No way I'm going under it," I protest. "It looks like it's gonna st-stack it any second. I don't want to get flattened,"

"Eye it is," Navi says. "Quietly, now,"

 

Glad for my bare feet, I tiptoe forwards. Navi stays back so that her buzzing wings won't alert the spider. I step into the slime and suppress the gag that forms at the feeling of the stuff oozing between my toes. The sound it makes alerts the spider; the thing whirls to face me and freezes as if listening for more noise. I copy it, staying perfectly still. I can feel the twitches working their way out, so I wiggle the fingers on my right hand to try and satisfy my body's movement quota. When I see the spider's leg joints relax slightly, I continue my quiet trek forwards.

 

That is, until my foot hits a deeper puddle and makes a loud squelchy noise. The spider leaps forwards at once, and I cry out as my sword is knocked straight out of my hand. The spider rears back, pincers flashing, and I twist away to protect my chest. I cry out in pain as the pincers dig into my right shoulder, and for a second I feel the horrible, ghastly, disgusting sensation of something scratching against the bones in my shoulder. The spider pulls back, perfectly still, dripping my freaking blood everywhere, and I squeeze my eyes shut and clutch the wound. Navi's screaming again and I want to tell her to shut up, her voice is grating straight on my brain. The spider ignores her totally; it must know she poses no threat. She flies right up to me at breakneck speed.

 

"Lemme see!" she barks, panicked, and shoves my fingers away from the bite. I can't help the low moan as she pulls my costume tunic down off my shoulder to see the skin. She swipes away the blood flowing from the wound, her uniformly blue flesh now stained with a sharp scarlet. She lands on my shoulder for a moment, curling a wing forward, and taps it with a knuckle. "I don't have any dust left," she says despairingly. "We can't do this, you have to get out of here now!"

 

I open my eyes a crack, looking at the spider. It looks on edge, ready to attack again. Then I locate my sword, about a metre away.

"N-n-Navi," I stammer, my voice a rasp. "Can you bring me my sword?"

"What? I c-can't lift that!" she protests.

"Can you drag it?"

"I-I dunno! Maybe? Link, we need to get you to another fairy! Someone who specialised in healing!"

"Navi, if you want me to g-get out of here alive," I cut off with a quiet whine before continuing, "you'll bring me my sword,"

 

She wrings her hands but flies over to the sword, grabbing the ribbons attached to the hilt and wrapping them around her bloody arms. Her wings beat with sharp reports, and the sword slowly, painstakingly makes its way towards me. When it's within arm's reach I let go of the bleeding bite and reach out, wrapping my slick fingers around the hilt. I lift the blade carefully, working out angles as best I can, holding the blade straight out. Ideally I'd steady it with my other hand, but my right arm isn't responding at all, completely numb. I've got pins and needles in my lips, of all places, and my stomach feels jumpy. I'm as ready as I'm going to be, though, so I grit my teeth and give an inarticulate shout. Immediately, the tense spider lunges again, moving in close so it can rear up and this time bite my head. It doesn't get the chance, though.

 

The spider blindly throws itself straight onto my blade, which plunges right into its eye right up to the guard and even past that, enveloping the impractical U-shaped hilt and half of the grip before it hits the back of its skull and jerks to a halt. The spider doesn't pull itself off the blade, or screech, or anything. It makes a quiet chittery whining sound before going limp, its eye light going out, dragging my sword straight down and pinning my legs. I let out a long breath, kicking the dead beast off me, and something about it seems to glimmer before the body ignites with green flames and burns itself to ashes.

 

There's a silence.

 

"My gods," Navi whispers. "Link, let's get out of here. Where's that seed?"

"D-d-do you think we c-can just g-get to the t-t-top?" I get out, the adrenaline rush fading to be replaced with every nervous tic I've ever had all at once. I thought I had beaten my stutter but it's right back here, and I bite my tongue. To my surprise, it barely hurts to bite it at all.

"Are you crazy?" she shrieks, but when I shoot her a look she relents. "We might be able to,"

"You saw earlier how g-good I am at c-climbing trees," I point out. My one green leaf of the entire day was from that event. She sighs.

"Come on, quickly. We need to get you to the fairies as quick as possible. Let me wrap up that bite so it doesn't bleed out. Cut off the ends of those sleeves,"

 

I untie the monster sleeves that would drag on the ground otherwise, slashing my sword through one and handing it to Navi. She drags the weight over my arm, pushing the limb upwards and looping around several times before tying the ends in a knot.

"That'll keep your blood on the inside," she grunts. "Hurry,"

I stop and look up to where I can almost make out the spider eggs on the ceiling.

 

"Navi, fly up there t-t-to light it," I say, moving forwards. My bare feet hit something with a clank; something round and muddy. I don't bother looking to see what it is as I shove it in my pouch, locating my boots and scraping the slime off the bottom of them. I pull them back on and keep searching, finding where I dropped my slingshot and a handful of pebbles. "I don't want to leave those eggs to hatch,"

 

"Good idea," she says, fluttering upwards. I loose several shots, shattering the eggs and raining shards and slime down.

"Any m-more up there?"

"None!" she says, flying down to join me. She leads the way to the tunnel ahead and I follow, doing my best to keep my twitching gut muscles in line, as well as my legs. They're twitchy and spasming, and I bite my numb tongue and roll my sore shoulder joints to focus. To my shock, the tunnel leads to a thin room that looks like it loops around most of the outside of the Deku Tree's trunk. Stairs- a ton of them, shallow but many to account for short Scrub legs. Navi blinks for a moment.

"Better start climbing," she murmurs, and I grit my teeth and take the stairs three at a time.

 

The sooner this is over, the better.


	8. Roll Me One More Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The top has been reached, the fairies released, and Link is triumphant. But letting him have that victory is apparently too much to ask for- at least from Mido.

I hope Navi hasn’t seen how badly my legs are spasming- I fell over three times on the way up, but I blamed it on exhaustion. The fact that it was only three times was nothing short of a miracle. Breathing seems way harder than it used to, too difficult to be the exhaustion. The only conclusion I can come to is the spider bite. With my luck, the damn thing was probably poisonous. But I don’t bother Navi with my concerns- we’re almost at the top, I don’t want this whole ordeal to have been for nothing. I just have to reach the fairies. Just reach the fairies.

 

I can hardly believe it when we reach the top. The sudden rush of fresh air shocks me, and I can’t help but whoop. It doesn’t even matter if Mido beat me! I made it!

...well, it matters a little bit.

“Hurry, Link,” Navi urges. “Open a fairy bud, come on, we have to get to Kiri or someone, maybe  _ everyone. _ ”

I clamber out of the hole in the branch and balance on it, walking out on it to see the festival still in full swing below. It’s starting to get dark, and the fairies stand out in sharp relief. I spot the lookout still perched on a stool; he looks up arbitrarily and drops the jar he’s holding in surprise. He shouts something unintelligible, then finds his trumpet and lets out a piercing note. Kokiri come streaming back, and I laugh, still slightly incredulous. I seriously did it? Holy crap, I did it!

“Link,” Navi whines. “Hurry up,”

 

I squint, making out a particular green head far below, and wave at Saria. She waves back, bouncing up and down with what I hope is excitement. Then I turn to the fairy buds sprouting from the bark in leathery knobs. I crouch next to the fattest one and start trying to prise the thick petals apart with only my left arm, working my bitten fingernails under the edges and pulling- it’s like peeling an extremely resistant onion. As I work off the outer layers, I can see a shifting glow moving about inside, and bite my lip. I’ve never seen the birth of a fairy before. I shift so that my left arm has a better position, and yank harder. The petals split open and _ two _ fairies spiral madly into the air- one black, one white. Twins. Like a chain reaction, as if this fairy bud’s taste of air encouraged the others to do the same, the rest of the buds start opening, fairies shooting out of them excitedly to illuminate the rapidly falling dusk. I sit down heavily on the branch as one of them flutters right up to my shoulder and pouts; a little yellow fairy.

“S’okay,” I reassure her. 

“S’ _ not, _ ” she whinges, and I can’t help but giggle at how childish her voice sounds. “Is  _ bad, _ ”

“Eh, I’ll f-fix it,” I nod, and she scowls and flutters away.

 

Practically as soon as she does, the Deku Tree tilts the branch I’m on and I slide straight down it to the ground. Kokiri flood me, eyeing my bloodied tunic worriedly, but I shrug it off and try not to yelp at the countless back-pats and wrenching high-fives. When I eventually fight my way out of the crowd, Saria’s right there, and she yelps in shock at my bloodied and tattered tunic.

“What did you do to your costume?” she asks in horror, examining me. “What happened to your shoulder?”

“Little encounter with a spider,” I mumble around a fat tongue. “Where’s K-k-Kiri? She’s g-good at healing, right?”

“She’s over with Ciela,” she points. “Oi! Kiri!”

The pink fairy huffs and flies over, but loses the huffiness quick smart when she sees my shoulder.

“Din almighty, what did  _ that? _ ”

“Giant spider,” Navi says anxiously. “Of the Gohma variety, I believe,”

“Holy-  _ those are poisonous! _ ” shrieks Kiri in panic, ripping off the sleeve-bandage with more strength than I thought possible for such a tiny creature. She flies right in close, close enough for me to see her black-as-night features contorting as she examines the bite. “How big was it?”

“Huge,” I say.

“She took an enormous chunk of the roots out.” Navi adds. “Must’ve been four times Link’s height,”

Kiri doesn’t so much shake her wings on me as turn around and throw herself back-first at the wound repeatedly. I bite back the pained curses threatening to enter the audible spectrum and instead dig my ragged nails into my palms so hard I think I draw blood. By this stage I have to lean entirely on my left leg because my right one is spasming insanely around. The fairy-dust numbness doesn’t just dull my shoulder though; it seems to shoot into it, ricocheting around the inside of my body right down to my toes and stilling my jumping muscles, soothing my aching joints and deflating my tongue. I don’t even register the relieved moan that I let out, relaxing entirely. This healing magic totally trumps Navi’s- although the sickening feeling of the enormous bite punctures healing back together still turns my stomach and gives me a headache that the dust shooting through my veins immediately quells.

“There,” Kiri says after a while, fluttering back. “That’s as good as I can do. How are your joints? Can you breathe properly? Are your muscles twitching?”

“My legs are still a little t-twitchy,” I admit, examining the mostly-healed bite, and she nods.

“It’ll be the venom. It’s okay, I’ve healed most of it. You’ll be fine.”

“Thank you,” I say warmly, and she nods sharply. 

“Don’t expect this from me again,” she complains. “You need to stop getting yourself hurt,”

“To be fair, I don’t encounter g-giant spiders every day,” I say defensively, and Saria snorts.

“You would if you could,” she prods me. “You’re a psycho, you know,”

“Better believe it!” I puff up my chest jokingly. “One hundred p-percent nutjob, that’s me!”

Zelda pops up behind Saria, having elbowed her way through the crowd, and offers a wicked grin.

“I see you got yourself into trouble again,” she nods to the stains on my tunic. “Nice going,”

“Eh, only a little,” I wink. She laughs. 

“Of course,” 

The crowd has started to clear again when the Great Deku Tree speaks.

“Kiri, would you please locate Mido? I don’t think he’s aware that the contest has been won,”

Kiri scowls and flies into the Deku Tree’s open mouth, disappearing upwards to find Mido and Neri.

Zelda pulls my sword from its sheath, examining it.

“Farore, Link, what did you stab with this?”

“Giant spider,”

“Gohma,” Saria corrects. Zelda nods.

“It’s filthy. Do you have any cloth you can clean this with? And beeswax, to polish the blade.”

“Uh,” I look at Navi. “I think we do. Beeswax might be a bit hard to get, but yeah,”

“Good,” she nods. “You shouldn’t have even sheathed it with this much squick on it. We’ll have to wash out the sheath too, it’ll be all down the inside,”

“Sorry,”

“Was it easy to use?” Saria asks interestedly as Zelda picks up the abandoned sleeve-bandage and starts scraping Gohma eyeball gunk off the blade. 

“Sort of,” I say. “I probably wasn’t using it right, though. I just kind of swung it at the Gohma whenever it came near me,”

“Well, you won, so it must’ve worked.” she shrugs. “How’d you beat the spider?”

“He blinded it and then tricked it into stabbing itself in the brain with his sword!” Navi says proudly. 

Saria blinks. “What?”

“I slashed its eye and blinded it, and then held my sword straight out and tricked it into pouncing on me. Sword went straight through its eye and into its brain,”

“That’s disgusting,” she says conversationally.

I let out a slightly hysterical laugh. “I know! I’m a psychopath!”

“No, you’re not,” Zelda comments. “Gohma are classed as monsters. They’re unintelligent and violent. You’ve done us a favour by getting rid of it.”

There’s a pause.

“That’s still disgusting.”

“It is,” the blonde admits with a snort. “Look at this! Eyeball slime! How gross is that?”

I wince, leaning against a bush. “Shut up! It was a giant spider-Gohma- whatever! I wasn’t sitting there like  _ right, what’s the best way to kill this without making a mess? _ ”

“Sure you weren’t,” Saria teases. “It was a total accident that you stabbed it through the eye,”

“I’m mildly disturbed by your glee at the idea of Link stabbing something in the eye,” Navi comments. I prod her arm with a finger.

“Oh, don’t pretend you weren’t cheering on the inside,” I say, and she huffs and rolls her eyes.

“Only ‘cause it’s you,” she sighs. “Damn you and your violence,”

“Violence is the answer!” I say in a sing-song voice. Zelda nods sagely.

“That it is,” she says, with the barest hint of sarcasm in her voice.

Behind us, in front of the Deku Tree’s open mouth, a flare of blue-ish light sprouts from the ground and spits out an incensed Mido, Kiri and Neri perched on each shoulder like the different aspects of his conscience. Although I’m not altogether sure which one is the good half. Let’s be honest; Kiri’s a cow to everyone but Saria.

Mido raises an accusing finger. “Link cheated!” he howls. I blink.

“I’m sorry?” I ask incredulously, as Navi immediately flies into a rage.

“He did not!” she protests. “Are you seriously accusing us of cheating just because you lost?”

Kiri flutters off Mido’s shoulder and returns to the side of an irate Saria.

“You’re just bitter, Mido,” Saria says coldly. “It’s about time someone who  _ wasn’t you _ won,”

He looks cut for a second, but then his scowl returns.

“You didn’t use the paths we were meant to! If you had, you would have come past me, because I was taking the right route!”

“It didn’t say anywhere that we couldn’t use the Deku tunnels, especially since we didn’t know they were there until we practically fell in them,” Navi protests. I look around anxiously, digging my nails into my forearm; people are gathering around suspiciously. And with my track record, they’ll probably believe Mido even if he is a well-known ass.

“Those tunnels are permanent and easy to access,” Neri says diplomatically, and I can’t help but give her the most venomous look I can muster. She’s always there, adding credibility to everything Mido says with her stupid big words and intrinsically convincing and calming voice. “It’s not inconceivable that one of the Scrubs told you about them beforehand,”

“Oh, get a life, Neri,” Kiri growls. “Seriously, I saw the path you guys were taking. It was about the slowest route to the top there was. He would have beaten you anyway,”

“He always cheats!” Mido snaps. “He’s always rigging everything so he wins!”

Zelda abruptly bursts into laughter, and everyone around her recoils as if they’re going to catch the Psycho or something. Even I raise my eyebrow at her as she puts a hand on my shoulder to keep herself upright. I can’t tell if she’s faking it or not.

“Link?” she chokes. “Link, rigging it? That’s absurd! Was I the only one looking when Mido was acting suspicious around Link’s ropes in that tree-swinging competition? I somehow doubt it’s a coincidence Link fell out of that tree!”

There’s a long, awkward silence that tells me quite plainly that Zelda was not the only one to notice, and evidently nobody felt the need to tell me before we started the contest. That hurts.

“Wow, great support network you guys have going on here!” she laughs even harder, and I really hope she’s faking it to sound even more amused at the situation...and she doesn’t actually find it funny that the Kokiri have a ‘great support network’. 

“Uh,” says Fado intelligently, before looking helplessly at the Deku Tree. I briefly wonder why he hasn’t stepped in yet.

“Let me get one thing straight,” Zelda says sharply, snapping out of the laughter abruptly. “You can pull whatever shenanigans you please. But there is a serious problem here, and I’m pretty sure I found the cause.” She points, not at Mido, but at Neri, who flares a bright white in shock. “If I understand this right, these fairies are supposed to teach you. Like a mother. And yet you’re the complete opposite! Instead of being supportive but fair, you seem to think it’s your job to make sure your respective kid isn’t ever blamed for anything!”

“H-hey,” Epheremelda says, lifting off from her customary perch in Timi’s fire-red hair. “Th-that’s not fair. We’re good at our jobs!”

“Yeah,” says some fairy whose name I don’t know. “You can’t say that!”

“I sure can!” Zelda gives a wicked smile. “I’ve been watching, these last few weeks. The way you guys treat eachother is completely backwards! Even when you’re trying to be nice, basically everyone is being backhanded with their words! I don’t understand how nobody is seeing it. Seriously, look at the person next to you. When was the last time you actually stopped to think about their thoughts and feelings? When you were all practicing for that play, you were even worse! You,” Zelda points at Mila, who looks shocked to be called out, “when you were marching out of time during that scene with the stars! Link tried to tell you, and what did you do? Made fun of him!”

I wince.  _ Stop, Zelda. _ She’s making me look like a priss! 

“You weren’t even discreet about it,” the blonde continues, on the warpath now. “He caught you at it like twenty times and you still kept doing it. And what did the fairies do? Giggled and taunted with you! You’re not acting like mothers! You’re enablers! You make their behavior even worse!”

There’s a collective shriek of outrage from Kokiri and fairy alike; I bury my head in my hands with a choked sound. Bloody hell, what is she  _ doing?  _ She’s making this all worse!

“Tell me this;” she says with a sense of finality.  “What’s the punishment when a Kokiri does something wrong?”

There’s another pause.

“Er, usually someone’s assigned to be in charge of punishments,” I whisper through my fingers, thoroughly ashamed. “It’s usually Timi, or one of the older Kokiri.”

“Thank you,” she nods. “Now here’s the real question; in what kind of family is someone’s best friend in charge of punishments, rather than the mother?”

Saria and I almost subconsciously shuffle a little further away from Zelda; by now, everyone is staring at her in horror and outrage. I glance at the Deku Tree. Why isn’t he interfering with this? Zelda’s literally here tearing apart the way the village functions!

Neri apparently finds issue with this- no surprise- and decides to speak up.

“And in what kind of family does the newly adopted  _ child _ make the rules?” she retorts.

Ouch. Touché. 

Apparently that’s caught Zelda off guard as well, and as she struggles to form a response Neri flawlessly commandeers the conversation.

“I can understand that you’re used to your Hylian way of running things, but we do it differently here,” she says loudly. “The fact remains that Link cheated in the competition by taking a route that he likely knew about beforehand. I don’t think that’s fair. While I get that Mido’s won more than his fair share-”

“Hey!” Mido interrupts, but Neri tactfully steams on.

“-that doesn’t mean you should resort to cheating to win. Opening the fairy-buds is a great honour, and it’s just not fair that Link cheated to do it,”

The muttering turns slightly darker, and I can feel a lump forming in my throat. I didn’t know about the tunnels! I had to fight a freaking giant spider that almost killed me  _ twice! _ Even if the tunnel was a bad route, I more than made up for it by  _ saving the freaking Deku Tree from death by Gohma! _ How can she possibly justify ruining this for me!

“Back off, Neri,” Saria says loudly. “Link won, fair and square. Don’t let your bias and bitterness get in the way of your logical thinking,”

“I’m not,” she answers immediately. “I’m telling it like it is.”

I look around fretfully; there are far more accusing glances levelled at me then there are Mido and Neri. Why? Why does everyone always believe Mido?

“Well, what do you expect us to do, Neri?” asks Epheremelda. “He’s already opened the buds. Your point is moot,”

I wish I was close enough to see Neri’s face; is she thoughtful? Cruel? Angry?

“I think we should put this up to a vote,” she says. “Put up your hands if you think he cheated!”

There’s a third dead silence, and Neri huffs. “Don’t mess around, guys. Don’t be stupid,”

Mido raises a hand, and the lump in my throat inflates to a thousand times its size as I look around. A second hand. A third. A lot. I squeeze my eyes shut, swallow hard and finally speak up.

“L-look,” I say, hating the way my voice cracks. “If you-you think I cheated, f-fine. Th-think that way the-then,” 

_ Damn _ this stupid stutter! I grit my teeth, swallowing again.

“It d-doesn’t bother me what y-you think of me anymore, be-because Zelda’s right. Exaggerated, but-but right. You-you guys d-don’t care about the others here, y-you just care about a small g-group and th-th-that’s it. Think what y-y-you want!”

Clenching my teeth as hard as I can to stop the choked noise from breaking free, I turn on my heel to stalk out of the meadow.

“Link, wait!” Navi cries.

“Leave it, Navi!” I snap at her, trying to ignore the hurt look on her face. Timi reaches out.

“Link?” he asks quietly, but I shove his hand off my blood-stained shoulder and flee the crowd.

Why am I so goddamn upset over this? It’s nothing! Mido accuses me of crap all the time, it’s not like this is new! But this  _ is  _ new. I’ve never won the festival before and I probably never will again, and Mido’s ruined it! I swipe at my eyes angrily as I reach my treehouse, climbing the ladder and kicking off my boots, yanking the curtain shut. I wish I had a real door, something I could slam shut just to get this out of my system, something that could act as a real barrier between me and everyone else out there who just doesn’t care about anyone else. Instead, the curtain flutters in the breeze as if to taunt me about how weak my walls are and how little I can stand up to. I dig my nails into my arms and grit my teeth before dropping onto my bed and squeezing my eyes shut again. How did today go so wrong? What did I do?

Sleep doesn’t come as quickly as I would have liked.


	9. Paper Cutouts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The grave robber has a message from a thousand years ago, Link has a nightmare, and Zelda and Saria argue semantics about their respective races. The morning after is more tiring than the night before.

**[/]{INTERLUDE-THE GRAVE ROBBER}[\\]**

The grave robber read the note for what must have been the thousandth time, leaning against the rough brick walls of somebody’s house in Castle Town. The note was written in surprisingly poorly formed modern Hylian, the kind of handwriting one would expect from a child just learning how to read and write- which didn’t fit with the legend of Mudora, the ancient Sage from millennia past.

_ I know who you are, and where you are. As you read this for the first time, you are underneath the Kakariko Graveyard, holding my book. Where I am writing this, there  _ _ is _ _ no Kakariko Graveyard; no Kakariko Village, for that matter. There is no Castle Town, no Gerudo Desert, no Zora city of Jabuzor...none of the places that you are familiar with have been created yet. Where I am, Hylians are not yet Hylians, and Zora do not even exist yet. And yet, I know the land that will come to be called Hyrule. I know its legend that has not even begun yet. And you play a vital role in the battle that will not begin for several years. You will need to be ready. _

_ First, you must copy down the first half of this book, the half that documents the history and language of Ancient Hylian. Take care to not copy down any of the second half, the half written in my own handwriting. Do not allow the copy to be damaged. When it is complete, guard it carefully until the end of winter. During this time, you will meet a boy who will not know you, and you will not know him. Give him the book, and do not take the book back from him no matter the circumstances. _

_ Secondly, and you will have to trust me on this one, you will have to acknowledge your heritage. Your bloodline contains a special power that will be vital to the success of justice in the coming battle; however, it is difficult to unlock. The one way to reveal this power is to first die. While this may shock you, I need you to trust me- for this one time only, dying will  _ _ not work _ _. You will return to life as healthy as you were before, with the added powers of your bloodline behind you. I get that this is a scary concept, but as someone who has been there and done that, it cannot harm you beyond perhaps a few stray dreams. I urge you to go ahead with this, as without your aid the Hero of Time has no chance at all of succeeding in his quest. _

_ My best wishes, and good luck. _

 

  * __Mudora.__



 

_ P.S. Crap, I forgot to mention this- travel out to the lower edges of the Gerudo Desert, near the border of Eldin Province. Look for the statue of a bearded man with a sword, and recite the chant located on page three of this book. You will find an interesting treasure inside the cavern that the villagers of Kakariko will be very pleased to receive. You will also get a ton of Rupees, and that’s always a good motivator. _

_ P.P.S. You better not skip any of this book. I spent ages writing this for you. If you skip it I will not be impressed. AND I WILL KNOW. _

_ P.P.P.S. And watch out for the princess. She’s going to try and blow your head off when you first meet. _

She shook her head in disbelief. The more she read the letter, the more ridiculous it seemed- especially the first post-script. She was still stuck on the image of the wise, ancient bearded sage saying ‘crap’. It was one thing to have knowledge of future events- quite another to comfortably use current vernacular like that. She had no doubt that the letter was referring to her- aside from the fact it had her name at the top, it very clearly used the names of places she had robbed in the past. How in the world did he find out about the disaster that was the Jabuzor robbery? Robbing the capital of the Zora Domain was her favourite campfire story, but she highly doubted she had somehow told the ancient sage about it. She chewed her lip. She was especially worried about his request for her to  _ get herself killed _ ! Sure, he seemed sure as hell that she wouldn’t die permanently, but the grave robber wasn’t as trusting. He knew about past events accurately, but she had no reason to believe his knowledge of the future was as accurate. 

She chewed her lip. Maybe there was a way to figure out whether or not Mudora actually knew what he was talking about. He’d warned against the princess ‘blowing her head off’ when they first met. 

So why not go meet the princess?

**[/]{END OF INTERLUDE}[\\]**

“You… you can get up now,” a tentative voice wakes me from my sleep. “Mila’s finished painting you,”

I crack open an eye and squint. Epheremelda and Navi are fluttering next to Mila, who’s holding up a painting. A painting of...me. Curled up on my bed. With...Saria?

I twist my head to look over my shoulder. At some stage during the night Saria must have snuck in, and she’s now looped around me like a freaking cape. Zelda’s curled down the end of the bed like an oversized cat, still sleeping peacefully with Kiri curled up in her hair. I go to sit up but think better of it, relaxing into Saria’s limpet hug.

“Go away, Mila,” I yawn good-naturedly, choosing to just act like last night’s mess never happened. She pouts.

“I’ll leave the painting on the table,” she says. I squint at the green light of Epheremelda.

“How come you’re here?” I ask her tiredly. She shrugs.

“Timi asked me to come check in on you,”

“Why couldn’t he come himself?”

She winces. “He figured after last night you probably didn’t want to see him,”

I debate getting up and apologising to Timi, but that would wake up Saria and Zelda. And, admittedly, me. I offer a guilty look.

“I’d apologise myself, but I don’t want to wake up these two,” I say. “Can you tell him I’m not mad at him?”

She brightens. “Sure!”

She zips out of the house and I yawn, cuddling back into Saria’s hug. She practically radiates heat, repelling the slight chill that signals the imminent winter. I groan as I realise that we’ll have to get back to work in the gardens soon, to prepare them for the cold weather. I wonder how Zelda’s going to handle that. She has super-soft hands, I doubt she’s ever gardened before in her life. That’ll be a fun shock for her. 

Sleep is dragging at my eyes, and I stifle a yawn. When was the last time I slept so well? I have no idea. I give in to the urge and let myself fall back into a restless sleep.

_ Sunlight streams through enormous windows painted with epic designs of legendary battles, images that I can’t quite focus on no matter how hard I squint. A trickle of fear slides into my stomach. Why can’t I see? I lift my hands anxiously; flesh coloured blurs have replaced them, and I don’t like it. I try to figure as much of my surroundings out as I can, crouching and placing my hands on the floor. It feels like cold, smooth stone, but by the dazzling light reflected off it I can guess it’s marble. I straighten again, hands out to stop me walking into things. Good thing, too; I almost clothesline myself walking straight into what I think is a candelabra; and then I smack my kneecaps on a pew. I guess I’m in some sort of temple, or church- I don’t think a pew is common anywhere else. I’ve only ever seen them in the Forest Temple, although technically I’m not supposed to go in there. I’m not supposed to go a lot of places, but I go anyway. _

_ Locating a clear path, I cautiously wander forwards until I bump into what I guess is an altar, and steady myself on its surface. I feel nauseous; the blurry sight I’m stuck with is driving me up the wall. I run my hands over the altar; three objects click under my hands, like glass. Blurs of red and green and blue. I carefully move around the altar, nearly tripping up a set of stairs I didn’t know were there. Practically crawling up them, I stumble into a square opening in the back wall. I wander inward, bumping into something cold and yet warm at the same time that’s sticking up out of the ground. I try to touch it, to figure out what it is, but for some reason my hands go straight through it. Frustrated, I turn to leave, looking back at the objects scattered on the altar. There’s a cracking noise and suddenly something is very very wrong, and I don’t know what it is but it’s wrong, so wrong, and I don’t know if it hurts or if I’m sick or if I can hear something or feel something and I don’t know what it is, and somebody is screaming and it’s not me and my vision goes even more and I squeeze my eyes shut and pray for it to end and open my eyes to see- _

Navi, right up against my face, smacking my cheek over and over trying to wake me up. I clench my eyes shut again, a beast of a headache accompanying the sudden switch back to focused vision. Evidently it was a dream- but Din, that was the worst dream I’ve ever had! And I know my bad dreams! I clamp my jaw shut to stop the whinge that wants to come out. Navi, Saria and Zelda are all staring at me like I’ve sprouted antlers or something.

“Hylia, Link,” says Zelda shakily, “what the hell was that?”

I huff, sitting up and suppressing a groan. Navi hugs my nose, and I look at her with crossed eyes. Her short hair is sticking in every direction, as if she’s spent the last ten minutes flying repeatedly into a wall. The look doesn’t suit her.

“Just a bad dream,” I brush it off. Both girls raise an eyebrow.

“They’re not normally that bad,” Saria murmurs. “I mean, you might make a bit of noise, but I’ve never seen you thrash like that,”

I blink, swiping sleep-grit out of my eyes, and nearly yelp when I see the bruise already forming on Saria’s cheekbone.

“Gah! What did I do?”

She rubs it. “It’s okay, you didn’t know. I was standing a bit too close and you whacked me in the face,”

“I’m so sorry,” I say guiltily. “Can we heal that?”

“Not worth it,” says Saria before Zelda can even respond. “Seriously, don’t waste the wing dust. It’ll clear up by itself.”

“Besides,” Zelda snorts, “you’ve got your own bruise troubles,”

“What?” I ask immediately, sitting bolt upright. Zelda laughs, grabbing my hand-mirror from my bedside table and handing it to me. I look at my reflection with a slight sense of horror; I relax immediately when I see the damage.

“Oh, please. That’s not that bad. You had me thinking my whole face was a giant bruise,”

The left side of my face, from just below my cheekbone up to my forehead, is a dappled purple-yellow colour. I can only assume that’s from meeting the wall up close and personal at Gohma’s hands (legs?) yesterday. 

“Not bad?” Zelda says in disbelief. Saria shrugs.

“Eh, compared to his usual. He has a monumental ability to get himself hurt. It’s quite remarkable,”

“Not a good thing,” Navi reminds us. I glare at her and she shuts up.

“Has the day’s gardening started yet?” I ask Saria, and she shakes her head.

“No, everyone’s having breakfast. They stayed up pretty late last night.”

“Ah, man,” I say, swiping a hand down my face. “Navi, can you help me make breakfast?”

“Nah, no need,” the fairy says happily, clearly glad to avoid the ordeal. “Timi left stuff. I haven’t opened it yet, though,”

I blink. “Timi?”

Navi rolls her eyes. “No, it was the  _ other _ tiny redhead,”

I blink again. “ _ Mido? _ ”

She shakes her head with a snort. “I should be careful with my sarcasm. No, it was definitely Timi.”

“I didn’t know Timi could cook,” remarks Saria.

“I wouldn’t have thought you guys could cook at all. What do you do it with?” Zelda asks. “I mean, you clearly don’t use fire, if you got up me so much for a little candle-finger,”

Saria shrugs. “Most of our dishes don’t need cooking, but if they do we’ve come up with a clever little method involving sun-heating rocks and using them as a little stove,”

Zelda looks impressed. “That’s genius,”

I stand up, first glancing at the table- empty- before peeking outside the door. A small wicker basket is sitting there, a blanket tucked protectively over the top, with a little piece of parchment.

_ I thought you would appreciate this, _ the note read. The closest to a ‘sorry’ Timi gets when he’s not hopped up on honey. I wince. He has nothing to be sorry for! He didn’t do anything! I pick up the basket anyway, bringing it inside and putting it on the table, pulling off the blanket from the top. Three neatly arranged clay bowls with what looks like vegetable soup inside. I poke a finger into the bowl I intend to take; it’s lukewarm, which means Timi can’t have delivered it too long ago. 

“Pull up a chair,” I say. “I’ll use the bedside table,”

Saria sits down in her chair, while Zelda drags hers back to the table from the window. I carefully lift each of the bowls, putting it down in front of them, and wander across to my bench, finding a few badly handmade spoons and bringing them back to the table before dragging the bedside table over and sitting on it. I really hope it’s not going to give way under me.

I take a mouthful of the soup- it’s actually not too bad. A bit sharp- I’m gonna guess he used a little too much ginger- but nice. I catch Saria’s eye, and she’s evidently thinking the same thing, because she smirks a little. 

“It’s not too bad,” Zelda says in agreement. “Better than your cooking, Link,”

I blink. Okay, yeah, I suck at cooking, but she seemed happy enough eating it for the last few days. Eh, whatever. I concede the point with a nod.

“Guess you should go beg Timi for living space, eh?” I joke. Navi laughs.

“Have you  _ seen  _ Timi’s house? I’m shocked there’s room in there to move!”

“I didn’t peg Timi for someone who’s messy,” Zelda frowns. Saria shakes her head.

“It’s not messy,” she says. “It’s startlingly clean. It’s just crammed with stuff he uses to keep himself occupied. He gets bored insanely easily. Went in there once. It’s all sharp edges. You gotta watch out you don’t cut your elbows on his latest project that will inevitably be unfinished,”

“That’s kinda odd,”  remarks the blonde. “What kinds of projects does he do?”

“Nayru,” Navi says. “Where to start? Pottery, painting, writing, glassblowing...uh, he does a load of other stuff but those are his favourite,”

“He’s no good at painting,” Saria reminds the fairy, who shrugs. 

“He’s getting there, according to Epheremelda,”

Zelda raises an accusingly pointed finger.

“Hold it! If you guys aren’t allowed to use fire, how can he possibly be glassblowing? You need fire for that,”

I hesitate. “Certain Kokiri are given permission to use fire, as long as they do it in the Forest Stage, away from any roots or trees. It’s easy down there to control it, and if it somehow got out of hand we could bring the whole cave down to put out the fire,”

“It’s only him and a few others who’re allowed to use fire, though,” Saria says. “I’ve been considering applying, but I don’t know what I’d do with it. The only thing I might use it for would be more effective cooking.”

Zelda frowns.

“How do you even start the fires?”

“That’s our job,” Navi says. “If we concentrate our energy enough we can start a fire. We’re not supposed to, though, not if we’re not underground.”

Zelda sighs, taking another thoughtful bite and swallowing it.

“It just seems like a restrictive system,” she says. “I mean, fire is the pinnacle of civilisation. Metal, glass, most bricks, light sources… I don’t get how you guys survive without it. It’s pr-”

She bites off the end of the word abruptly, but Saria looks offended.

“I can guess what you were about to say,” she says darkly, “and I can assure you, we are  _ not  _ primitive! At least Kokiri don’t feel the need to massacre eachother every few years!”

“The only reason we get into wars is to protect basic rights,” Zelda says diplomatically. “If someone wants to take our land or rights away from us, it is our duty to defend it. The goddesses gave this land to Hylians, and as Hylians we will keep it as our own,”

“So, what,” Saria points out. “Kokiri shouldn’t be in Hyrule then?”

Zelda pauses, biting her lip.

“Technically, no,” she admits. “According to the history books, Kokiri were once isolated to Faron Province, and didn’t step foot in Hyrule itself. But the forest has expanded over the years into Hyrule, and it’s not like we can go to war against children,”

I frown. “I’d like to see your Hylians get past the Deku Scrubs,” I say crossly. “They’d have you beaten down in seconds!”

“I’d hope not,” Zelda says evenly. “The Hyrulean Army trains for years to be fit for combat. It would be a humiliation if they were ousted by wooden creatures less than a foot tall,”

“At which point you’d run into the fairies,” Saria says, and I suddenly wonder how this became a war discussion. “Despite their size, their magic can be devastating, and  _ because _ of their size they can get in close. A lot of the time, swinging weapons will actually just blow them out of the way because of the slipstream,”

“It wouldn’t be too hard to scatter an army of glowing, tiny creatures,” Zelda counters. “Magic aside. Most of our knights’ armour is insulated against magic.”

“And then you’d hit the Kokiri themselves,” I remind her. “You really think we’re not capable of defending ourselves? Try thinking that when you have a mattock in your eyeball. While your army dithers about hitting children, we’re there with a whole host of lethal garden instruments to make your day a lot worse than it already was,”

Zelda pauses.

“Hmm. How many Kokiri  _ are _ there?”

“You saw last night,” Saria explains. “Times three, for the other two Kokiri villages that we could call on for help.”

She bites her lip pensively. “I think that it’d be a tough fight, but the army’s superior weapons and armour would help them through,”

There’s a wicked grin on my face now.

“And if you did that, you’d better start praying. Because then you’d have the Great Deku Tree, the Maku Tree, and the Baga Tree to deal with.”

“They’re trees!” protests Zelda. “They can’t do much!”

“Their roots extend all over the forest. They’d whip out of the ground below you and bludgeon you to death, and you’d have no way of defending yourself because it’s  _ just a tree _ ,”

Zelda frowns even more.

“Wouldn’t such large roots be unwieldy in the forest? They’d destroy most of the trees just hitting one soldier,”

“If you’ve already brought down the Kokiri,” Saria says, “there isn’t a single thing, living or dead, that could get in the way of the Deku Tree’s wrath. You just killed five hundred of his own children. He is not going to hold back,”

I bite back a sudden voice that wants to say  _ four hundred and ninety-nine of his own children. _ It’ll be five hundred soon anyway. 

Navi gives a nervous sort of laugh, interrupting our three-way argument.

“While I appreciate your enthusiasm,” she says awkwardly, “maybe we should curb the violent discussion. We should probably go start the gardening soon,”

Zelda nods, a mildly worried look on her face. I bet she’s trying to figure out if the Hyrulean Army actually  _ could  _ take the Kokiri forest. I bet they couldn’t. Nobody could.

There’s a few silent moments as we finish our soup.

Saria yawns. “Link, you take Timi’s basket back,” she says, breaking the silence. She stacks the surprisingly symmetrical bowls atop eachother. “You should probably wash them out, too. Manners.”

“What’re you two gonna do?” I ask. 

“I’ll set your bed, since I slept in it,” she says. “Zelda can set hers.”

“I probably need to fix my hair, too,” Zelda says, picking up the handmirror and examining herself. “I get terrible bed hair,”

I snort.

“Invest in a hat,” I tap mine, tugging it on. “Bed hair will never be a problem again,”


	10. Rain on the Piano Keys

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the Kokiri go about their daily lives, the storm clouds gather above them, and the consequences of Link's actions make themselves known.

I clamber down the ladder with the basket swinging from my arm, looking apprehensively up at the sky through the trees. It’s a shaded grey, mischievously reminding us of an imminent rainstorm. I ignore it, striding to the pond and washing out Timi’s bowls before stacking them back up and bringing them back to his house. I pause at the door. Timi is playing piano. Well, orphica, more specifically. It’s a beautiful instrument, and he plays quite well. He’s not relaxing into it, though; just from the tone of the notes I can tell his fingers are stiff and cold, closed off. I don’t really want to interrupt, so I just wait by the door and shut my eyes to the tune. It’s a tasteful, jazzy arrangement of one of my favourite songs, and I can’t help but tap my fingers lightly with the beat. Epheremelda wiggles her fingers at me and I wave back.

It’s a good five minutes before Timi notices where his fairy is looking and turns around.

“Hello, Link,” he says, and I cringe slightly at the clipped quality of his words. Someone get him something sweet, pronto. It’s offputting when he’s in a poor mood.

“Hey! I, uh, came to bring back your bowls. Thank you so much for that, too, and I, uh, wanted to say sorry for getting at you last night, ‘cause that was uncalled for, and I also-”

He lets the orphica hang from its strap around his shoulders, striding over and taking the basket back.

“ _ Bíschönn, _ ” he murmurs in Fae, placing the basket on a table stuffed against a wall. Several broomsticks and his stilts are stashed behind the table, in the space between the straight edge and the curved wall. I look around; the place is simultaneously refined and elegant, and crammed full of so much stuff that you don’t want to risk bumping into anything. “It was no trouble,”

Epheremelda beams, knotting her fingers together.

“O-okay,” I say, looking back at the midget Kokiri. “I-I’ll just go get ready for the gardening,”

He nods, turning back around boredly, fixing his brown sleeves. I stifle a pout and glance at Epheremelda before heading back to my house. I meet Saria and Navi halfway; the green-haired Kokiri jabs a thumb at my house.

“Zelda’s being fussy,” she says. “Trying to bring her harp with her,”

“Uh, why?” I ask. Navi shrugs.

“Doesn’t trust that it’ll be left alone,”

“She can hide it with my sword,”

“Yeah, that’s what I said,”

I roll my eyes, heading back to the ladder, but stop. Zelda’s arguing with...herself?

“Why won’t you leave me alone?”

A pause.

“I know it’s you, you blasted thing. Every single source I could find points to you. You’re the one causing this trouble! It’s your fault I wound up here in the first place!”

I beckon Saria over worriedly; she listens too, biting her lip.

“Oh, shut  _ up! _ ” Zelda suddenly snarls, and there’s a loud thump, like something metallic hitting the floor. She’s quiet for a while before continuing. “I’m sick of your stupid dreams. Take them somewhere else.”

Navi raises an eyebrow at Saria and I. I’m starting to actually think Zelda is crazy. Between last night’s fiasco and now talking to her harp…

I hear a noise that evidently means she’s flopped back on the bed.

“I have to tell him,” she murmurs. “It’s not fair...Farore, where’s Impa when you need her?”

I tiptoe away and then make a big show of stomping up to the ladder, so she can hear my footsteps.

“Zelda!” I holler up the ladder. “Hurry up!”

I hear a scrape of metal and a yelp before she appears, flustered, at the top of the ladder.

“S-sorry!” she says squeakily, tying the harp to her belt with ribbons. “Coming!”

She scrambles down, and Saria and I assume identical faces of unconcerned innocence as we lead her to the garden and hand her a hand mattock.

“You can do weeding,” Saria says as Navi flutters off. “Just attack the weeds with the flat end to hook them out of the dirt. Make sure you get as much of their roots out as possible,”

Zelda stares at the mattock like it’s about to explode, and I supress the urge to laugh. “Go on,” I prod her, retrieving a small spade and a pitchfork, and swinging a tube of wooden stakes and an empty basket over my shoulder. Saria is tasked with prepping the trees for the frost; I get to dig up the vegetables and re-bury them in a makeshift root cellar. The blonde tags along after a helpful Mila, who offers to show her how to weed properly.

When I next look up, there’s a long line of my garden stakes sticking out of the ground where I’ve turned over the cabbages and lettuces, and my basket is nearly full of the already mature potatoes, rhubarb and carrots. I glance over to where Saria is wrapping the bases of trees, and then find Zelda carrying a pile of weeds to the compost heap with an expression of distaste painted across her features. I can’t help but make a face; she evidently has absolutely no qualities of a Kokiri, and absolutely no respect for the way we do things. Biting my lip, I return to my work, ignoring the several suspicious looks I find cast at my back when people think I’m not paying attention. Usually gardening is quite social, but today it feels closed off and lonely, with me humming to myself to fill the relative silence.

It’s well into the afternoon when finally the massive gardens are fully prepped for winter. I bring my basket teeming with vegetables back to Somi, who thanks me as I drop it beside another three full. They’ll be kept in the storeroom underground, where it’s cooler and they’ll last longer. It’s plenty cold out here, to be honest- the promised rain has started to drizzle half-heartedly down on us as we pack up, picking our way around stakes and rows of buckwheat, clover and turnips.

“Hey, Link,” Zelda says, catching up to me. “Can we borrow a few of those stakes?”

I blink.

“Uh, why?”

“I have an idea,” she says impatiently. “Can we borrow them?”

I roll my eyes as I dump my stakes, yanking three from the cylinder and passing them to her. She nods gratefully.

“Thanks,” she says, taking them and dashing off. Here’s hoping she’s not using them for anything stupid, dangerous, or stupidly dangerous. Rolling my eyes, I wander after Saria, joining her in a nap on her bed.

Zelda returns triumphant several hours later, hair plastered to her head with rain but her eyes sparkling.

“Hey, Link!” she says, popping into Saria’s house to wake us up. “Come with me! And hurry!”

I blink as she vanishes again, yawning and glancing at Saria, who looks equally alarmed.

“I-I better go check that,” I say apologetically, standing up and stretching. Saria nods.

“No worries,” she yawns. “I can always go nick one of Timi’s books if I get bored, he has a ton of them.”

I blink.

“You read books?”

“Just cause I can read,” she teases. I wince.

“I can read!” I say defensively. “Just...not particularly well. I don’t like doing it,”

“Oi, go chase after Zelda before she gets lost,” Saria snickers. I tug my hat down over my ears, to the protests of the sleeping Navi contained inside, and race out into the freezing rain. I can see Zelda’s honey-blonde head ducking across the village to my left, and I follow her as she ascends the ramp into the upper Lost Woods. I can’t help but laugh; looks like she has about as much respect for the ‘don’t go out alone’ rule as I’ve got. She keeps going, following where she’s evidently scratched marks into trees to make a path. 

Huh. Genius.

Zelda finally stops at a clearing that she’s rigged up with vines tied in a circle around the encircling trees, like a little stage or something. In the middle the three stakes are lying down with their ends blunted off; she picks up two and kicks the third aside.

“Here,” she says, handing me one of them and stepping back. I stare at the stake uncomprehendingly; okay. It’s a stake. What am I meant to do with this?

It becomes quite evident when Zelda suddenly assumes what I recognise to be a standard fencing stance, one hand held aloft behind her and the stake out in front. 

“Wait, what?” I yelp, lifting the stake protectively. “What are you doing?”

“You beat that Gohma with blind luck,” she says flatly. “And if you’re going to be getting into trouble like that you’re going to need to know how to actually defend yourself,”

I blink.

“How do  _ you _ know how to swordfight?” I ask in dismay. She looks at me incredulously.

“Standard training for Hylians in authority. Swordplay is often used in honour contests, and we also need to be able to fend off attackers and assassins,”

Shaking my head, I raise the stick higher.

“And why do  _ I _ need to know how to swordfight?”

“Because I said so!” she shouts suddenly, leaping forwards. I duck behind the stick; she swiftly hits the stick so hard it hits me in the nose, then she lashes out and takes my knees out from under me.

“Pathetic,” she says stiffly, her stick pressing against my throat. I swallow hard, chin up as far away from the actually deadly stake she’s holding. “If this were a blade you’d be drowning in your own blood by now,”

She whips the stick away and I let out a breath.

“Ch-charming,” I stammer, standing up again. She doesn’t even pause before leaping forward again; I try to duck to the side like she did before, and she instead throws her weapon to the side and slams it into my head. I don’t even register landing on my back, and she scowls at me again.

“If this were a blade, your head would be open like an overripe melon,”

I wince at the gross imagery as I climb to my feet once again.

“Are you going to actually teach me how to swordfight? Or are you just going to beat the snot out of me with a stick? Because I could easily get Mido to do the second one, if you’re not partial,”

She gives me a filthy look.

“Fine. But you’re holding it completely wrong,”

The trees are completely bare and the frost is thick on the ground by the time Zelda finally decides that she’s happy with my swordfighting skills, to my immense joy. I’ve had even more bruises than usual for the last month, and I’ve been glad for the long sleeves of my winter tunic concealing them from view. I’m not entirely sure that I want it to be known that I’m being repeatedly bested by Zelda.

“I’d like to teach you how to ride,” she says ruefully as we sit on the porch beside Saria, “but there’re no horses in the woods. I dunno how I’d do it,”

I bite a nail thoughtfully.

“I mean, we have a prop horse somewhere,” I say, “but that’ll probably be useless.”

Zelda and Saria shoot me a look that assures me the prop horse would indeed be useless, and that I’m a moron for bringing it up. Navi sneezes violently from my shoulder and I nearly jump out of my skin. I think she may have caught a cold or something.

“Sneeze the other way, please,” Kiri says in that quiet voice that makes you regret everything you’ve ever done. Navi blushes navy-blue, stammering a snuffly apology.

“Hey, look,” I crack, hoping to cheer her up. “It’s a Navy Navi!” Saria laughs, and Navi shoots me a look.

“Does she do purple?” asks Zelda with a cheeky smile. Navi turns orange instead in indignation. “No, purple!” she says. “That’s orange!”

“I’ll give you purple!” snaps Navi, brightening to red in frustration.

“But you didn’t give us purple, that’s red,” Saria says in a clueless tone of voice, clearly trying not to crack up. Kiri makes an irritated noise at our immaturity, while Navi turns a dangerous black, smouldering. I frown- my efforts to cheer her up are clearly not working. I tickle her.

“That’s not purple,” I say playfully. “You’re pretty in every colour, though,”

She gives a little smile and starts to fade back into cyan; at one stage, halfway between the inky black and pale cyan, she’s a dark indigo.

“She’s purple now,” says Kiri flatly.

Navi instantly turns black again.

“Uh,” says Zelda, evidently hoping to defuse the situation, “hey, Link. Saria. Can I teach you a special little song?”

“Oh?” says Saria, interested. “What for?”

“Well,” Zelda says, “I figure that I trust you enough by now. I was thinking on what you said, about how the Hyrulean Army would bulldoze the Kokiri. If you ever did need to stop our army or one of our soldiers or someone, you could play this song.”

“Sounds like a lot of power that could be easily given away by someone whistling,” I comment. Zelda flicks her hair.

“It started off as a simple lullaby for my great-grandmother, but when the war broke out it became a sort of signal, to test if people were spies. You’d hum the first part, and if the second man hummed the refrain back they were genuine. If not, they were a spy. It’s a rather well-kept secret, and there’s an enchantment on the song itself to stop it being used by anyone who hasn’t sworn fealty to the crown,”

“That’s some powerful magic,” Kiri says, finally interested. “How is it maintained?”

“Intent charm,” Zelda responds. “For the song to come out right, you have to have the right intentions.”

“How do you monitor that, though? Usually with intent charms, there has to be a physical component; like a bow that won’t shoot arrows unless they’re going to hit monsters,”

“It’s actually cast on their throats and their fingers,” the blonde elaborates. “You can’t play or sing a song without using either your throat or your hands. If someone with bad intentions tries to play it, their muscles just won’t respond to them.”

“That’s so cool,” Navi says, impressed. “That’s really clever thinking,”

“Anyway, want to learn it?” she offers.

“Hell yes,” I say immediately. “Magic songs are awesome,”

“Okay,” Zelda says with a smile. Her hands go to the pouch at her belt, and I stifle a laugh as she mutters angrily, unlacing the entire top half of the pouch just to get at the harp inside. “These bottomless pouches are amazing,” she says crossly, “but they’re useless if you can’t get the blasted things out of the opening,”

“I’m glad you trust the pouch enough to store your harp there,” Saria says seriously. “From what I hear, that thing’s pretty explosive,”

“Oh, it’s not too bad,” Zelda says, shooting it a filthy look as she finally tugs it free. “It tends to mess with magical power, though. Gives you dreams. Whispers. It taps into things that should be left alone,”

I look worriedly at Saria. Is that why Zelda was pitching a fit the other day? The harp? It sounded like she was actually talking to someone, rather than something, but I could be wrong.

“Anyway, it goes like this,” she says, lifting the harp. “This is the call,” She plucks a short melody, three notes, repeated once. “And this is the response,” Eight notes now. “The whole song is longer, but that’s just the part taught to members of the army.”

I whistle the song back at her, and I can actually feel something tingling in my throat. Or is that my imagination?

“Thank you,” Saria says honestly, and I blink. “I don’t think we’d need it, but Kokiri live many lifetimes. If things change, it’s comforting to know we have something to back us up.”

Zelda bites her lip- looks like she didn’t think about the whole ageless thing. Bet she isn’t comfortable with the idea of the Kokiri living forever with the knowledge of how to manipulate her army. Boo hoo. It’s not like the Kokiri would ever be the aggressors in a battle. We’d just be defending ourselves, anyway.

“You’re welcome,” she says after a pause. “Look after it. Use it well,”

Saria and I nod at the same time.

“Do we have permission to use it, too?” asks Navi.

Zelda blinks. “Of course,”

“Thank you,” Kiri says gleefully. “I might have a little fun with the magic of that little piece,”

“Don’t you go picking apart my enchantment, now,” Zelda warns. “There’s a lot riding on that song,”

“I know,” the fairy mutters petulantly. “Just want to have a bit of fun,”

There’s a quick, fierce look exchanged by the Hylian and the fairy, and the latter relents.

“Fine,” she moans. “I’ll leave it alone,”

“Thank you,” Zelda says flatly. “Much appreciated.”

I yawn widely, huddling closer to Saria. It’s  _ cold. _ Zelda catches the action and sniggers.

“You have it lucky, here in the village. Out in central and coastal Hyrule, it’s so cold that it’s impossible to leave the house.”

“And it’s not here?” Saria says stiffly, shivering. I loop an arm around her, hoping to warm her up a little.

Zelda snorts. “In Hyrule, if you go outside without at least two layers of clothes on this time of year you’ll end up with frostbite. Your fingers and toes will turn purple and maybe even fall off. People can’t have baths unless the water’s been heated over a fire, and the beds are warmed with pipes of hot air from the furnaces.”

“Furnace?” asks Navi.

“It’s a room full of fire, used for heating,” she explains. I make a contented noise; the very thought is warming.

“If we didn’t live in a forest made of wood, I would suggest we build one,” I comment. “As it is, that’d be a terrible idea,”

“You think?” Saria says, surveying the trees outside. “Gah, winter is the worst season. I bet the Forest Temple’ll be all snowed under,”

“Why does the Great Deku Tree keep his leaves through winter?” asks Zelda. “Almost all of the other trees lose theirs, except for those smaller Deku Trees scattered around. The...not talking ones.”

“Deku Trees just don’t lose their leaves,” Navi shrugs. “They’re capable of growing right through winter,”

“Interesting,” Zelda says thoughtfully. 

My fingers drum a tattoo on the boards beside me as I spot a Skull Kid racing through the trees, outside of the main village. Not long now until my birthday, and the Deku Tree says that the Skull Kids might start acting up around me when I turn eleven. I’m not exactly looking forward to that.

Another Skull Kid bolts past, and I frown. It’s unusual to see Skull Kids so close to the village, let alone two. Then a Deku Scrub comes tearing across the village and I lean forwards. What are they running from? My eyes rake the trees, searching for anything out of the ordinary. I’ve always been able to see distant stuff easier than what’s closer to me. I can’t really see anything odd, though. What is it that’s distressing the Skull Kids and Scrubs?

A second later, I get my answer, and my blood runs cold. No.  _ No. _

“Zelda?” I whisper in horror. She looks at me, breaking off her conversation with Saria and Kiri.

“Yes?”

“ _ Hide that harp. Now. _ ”


	11. All Hell Breaks Loose

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nothing is without consequences. It's a hard lesson to learn.

My tone of voice leaves no room for doubt, and immediately Zelda is shoving the harp back in the pouch, re-lacing it, casting enchantments on it and looking about for a hiding place. I reach under the bed and pull out my sword; Saria helps me tie the thing to my baldric, and I reach over my shoulder and pull out the blade. All of us back away from the doorway, staring at it as if it might grow teeth. Saria suddenly snatches a headband off a shelf, looping Zelda’s hair into a much more Kokiri-like, practical style. 

“What’s going on?” she hisses, fetching string to tie Zelda’s hair into Fado-like buns. 

“I hope I’m wrong,” I mutter fervently, “but I think I just saw one of those lizard monsters in the trees,”

Navi flares a sickening yellow, her features draining of their blue colour.

“No,” she says; fearfully, pleadingly. I look up at Saria and Zelda; the first looks horrified as she roughly ties off the buns, while the second looks disbelieving and blank. Kiri balls her hands.

“We need to warn the others,” she says, her voice surprisingly strong for such a tiny creature. “If we’re fast we can make it to the Forest Stage. If not, we can probably all hide inside the Deku Tree,”

Such fast thinking. Such good plans that won’t work.

“There’s no time,” Zelda says, grabbing my sword out of my hand. She slices open my woven mattress and shoves the pouch inside, then mutters a few words and runs a glowing finger over the cut to seal it. For good measure, she flips the mattress around so the cut faces the wall. “If they’re that close to the village, we’re not going to all make it to the Deku Tree in time. Does anyone have a horn? A trumpet? Anything of the like?”

I know I don’t, and Saria shakes her head. Zelda grits her teeth. “How can we raise the alarm?”

I reach for my ocarina at my belt, and Zelda nods sharply. “Do it,”

I take up a spot at the edge of the porch and blow as hard as I can into the clay instrument. A piercing noise rings out; not really a note, but a shrill noise that’s sure to draw attention. I look into the trees; was that a scaly tail? Or am I just imagining it? My stomach is knotting up as if hoping to snap itself in half; I barely pause for breath before letting the ocarina screech again. People poke their heads out of houses; someone yells out an irritated “Shut up!” but I don’t stop.

I freeze, the note petering out pathetically, as I hear an obnoxiously loud cracking noise from the entrance to the village. Hardly daring to look, dreading what I know is there, I don’t manage to stop the whimper that leaks out as I regard the monster.

It’s so tall, so, so tall; coated in thick green scales. It moves awkwardly, its tail swishing behind it to keep it upright as it stomps its way forward. Another follows it, and another, and another, until nearly a dozen have poured into the village. Someone notices them and lets out a piercing scream, and only then do the others start paying attention to my warning. More panicked screams, shouting as the panic races through the Kokiri. I look towards the Deku Tree, who has a furious look on his face, and only then do I realise something. Where are the Deku Scrubs?

The first line of defense has fallen.

Kiri must come to the same conclusion as I do; she lets out a snarl of anger. “Navi, gather the fairies!” she barks, preparing to slingshot herself off Saria’s shoulder. Navi stops her.

“Wait, Kiri,” the blue fairy says. “We don’t know what they want. Maybe the Deku Tree can convince them to leave without hurting anyone,”

My hands are shaking as I put my ocarina back in my belt, and I watch as Kokiri scatter away from the monsters. Several have gone for makeshift weapons, but that seems to just anger the beasts more. Timi is trembling like a leaf as he positions himself right in their way.

“Excuse me,” he says, his voice startlingly steady. “Do you have business with the Deku Tree? We’d be glad to help you, but we need you to promise you’re not here to-”

He cuts off with a howl of pain as one of the beasts slams an overgrown, rocky arm sideways into his gut; the redhead actually flies several metres to the right, skidding along his back and nearly flipping over as he comes to a stop, leaving a ploughed trail in the snow behind him. The Kokiri immediately fall silent in horror, shrinking away from the lizards. A furious noise escapes my throat as I grab my sword from Zelda’s hand and charge for the ladder.

“Stop!” shrieks Saria, grabbing my arm. “Look how many of them there are! You can’t take them all on!”

“I d-didn’t spend the last month t-training to use this for nothing!” I snap, cursing internally as I realise I’m stammering again. Zelda shakes her head.

“There’s no way you can take on a whole pack of Lizalfos,” she says, with a final tone of voice. A voice that’s used to being obeyed. “Don’t be an idiot,”

The snow begins to shift slightly as the Deku Tree lifts roots to the surface, ready to defend his children.

“Everyone, to the meadow!” he roars, and Kokiri immediately charge to him. Reluctantly sheathing my sword and sweeping my hat over the handle, I slide down the ladder, followed closely by Saria, Zelda and the fairies. I swerve to the right to get Timi, who’s huddled in a heap making a pitiful noise.

“Farore,” I mutter, the name finally starting to feel smooth on my tongue even as I stammer and trip over my words. “T-t-Timi, can you h-hear me?”

He makes a noise that I take as assent. “Okay, I’m going to p-pick you up and bring you to the mea-meadow, okay?”

He makes the noise again, closing his large brown eyes, and I scoop him up with some difficulty, his snow-covered back dripping over my arms. I move as quickly as I can to the meadow; this isn’t a fairy healing job, this is a Zelda healing job. Fairies usually only heal injuries with external access; as far as I can tell, the only surface wound on Timi is some wicked bruising. I don’t know if fairy dust could penetrate deep enough to heal his bruised insides, because that hit almost certainly took out some internal organs. And judging by the sound he’s making, they’re probably important ones.

“Zelda!” I hiss, joining the hundred or so Kokiri clustered in the meadow. Several are clinging to the Deku Tree’s bark, as if touching him will keep them safe. “Zelda, help! He’s hurt!”

Her eyes are wide, and she swallows several times before answering.

“I can’t heal him until they’re gone,” she says miserably. Saria and I glare furiously.

“What d-do you mean? Zelda, you have to help him!”

“You guys don’t have healing magic! If these Lizalfos see me using it, they’ll know straightaway that I’m the one they’re looking for,”

Kiri flies close to Timi, checking his eyelids and breath.

“I can heal him,” she says nervously, “but I don’t know what the side effects will be,”

“Do it,” Saria says immediately, and Kiri doesn’t use her wing dust this time. Shoving his vest out of the way and popping one of the buttons on his shirt, she plants her hands squarely on his stomach and flares a blinding white, so bright almost all the Kokiri around us squeeze their eyes shut. I squint at Kiri; she seems much more powerful, her four arms ringed with pure light that plays with her tri-tailed hair and loops lazily around her antennae. Her eyes are the most blinding of all, leaking what looks like tears. But fairies don’t have tears. What? The liquid streams down her face, drips to her shoulders, flows down her arms. Timi relaxes in my grip, loosening his shoulders. The glow fades, and Kiri wipes her eyes free of whatever that liquid was.

“He’ll be fine,” she says, sounding woozy. “He might be sore, and probably have terrible nausea for a while, but he’ll be fine in the long run,”

“Thank you,” I say, gently letting Timi down, propping him in the snow with his back up against the Deku Tree. 

“I’m going to find Epheremelda,” Navi says, launching herself off my shoulder. “I’ll be back,”

One of the monsters enters the meadow, its tail sweeping an area free of snow behind it. Oh goddesses.

“What is your business in these woods?” the Deku Tree says threateningly, anger evident in his voice. “You enter my forest, you harm my children…”

“We have been sssent to retrieve sssomething that wasss sstolen from usss,” says the creature. It can speak Hylian? I bite my lip; the Great Deku Tree, Zelda, Saria, Navi, Kiri and I all know what it’s talking about.

“D- _ did _ you steal it?” I murmur.

“No,” Zelda says back, quietly affronted. “It’s my birthright,”

The Deku Tree doesn’t even twitch.

“There is not a thing in these woods that belongs to anyone other than me and my kindred,” he says firmly. “Who sent you?”

The monster- Lizalfos, Zelda called it?- gives what looks an awful lot like a feral smile.

“You are  _ lying, _ tree,” it hisses with a wicked grin. “And I ssshall not tell you our missstresss’ name,”

“Mistress?” says the Deku Tree, sharp as ever. “It is my understanding that females are not considered equal in Lizalfos culture. Your mistress is not Lizalfos, is she.”

It’s not a question. The smile morphs to something ugly as the beast fixes the tree with a gimlet eye.

“Very good,” it says, but its voice sounds like ‘very good’ is a very  _ bad  _ thing. “Tell usss where ssshe isss,”

“I will not,” says the Deku Tree immediately. “You wish to harm my children? You will not,”

The Lizalfos snarls angrily.

“We will sssearch your sssettlement,” it snaps, “and if we find what we were sssent to find, you will regret it. We will not touch your…  _ children, _ ”

It turns tail, and I let out a choked noise I didn’t know was there. The Deku Tree is immediately all business.

“Is Timi alright?” he asks.

“Yeah,” I say. “K-k-Kiri healed him,”

“Good,” he murmurs. “Everyone, stay here until the Lizalfos are gone,”

“How did they even get in here?” demands Fado. “What happened to the Deku Scrubs?”

The tree sighs.

“I do not know, my child.” he mutters wearily. “I do not know,”

We hunker down in the snow, glad that it’s much shallower under the shade of the Deku Tree. The flakes that do make it through burn against our faces, and several Kokiri look humiliated as the stress evidently gets to them, and they try their best to swipe away their tears before others see them. Mido’s tapping people’s shoulders, asking something frantically, panic on his face. What’s wrong? 

I don’t know how long we stand against the tree, the only sounds being the noises of houses being destroyed, torn apart in a frenzied search. Our dread-soaked wait is broken when a triumphant catcall silences the other sounds, and the four of us immediately blanch.

Oh,  _ goddesses. _ They found the harp.

I look up at the Deku Tree, going for my sword; he hesitates, but murmurs a quiet “No.”

The largest Lizalfos comes stomping back into the meadow, Zelda’s golden harp clutched in its hand. Several Kokiri make noises of confusion and/or recognition; a few shoot Zelda sharp looks.

“I  _ sssaid _ not to hide thisss from me, tree,” it says with a slasher smile, looking wickedly delighted at its findings. “I  _ warned  _ you and ssstill you lied to me,”

“That is not the harp you are looking for,” the Great Deku Tree says easily. “That is much too plain to be the harp. I have encountered the harp before; it is golden with many gemstones, shaped like the crest of Hylia,”

“You  _ lie, _ tree,” the Lizalfos shakes its head mockingly. “We will take thisss harp, and you will regret lying to usss…”

It scans the Kokiri one more time before turning tail, and I turn to Zelda, who’s white as a sheet.

“What’s g-going to happen?” I stammer. “What will they-they do, with the harp?”

“I don’t know,” Zelda says, looking down. “We...we can’t let them take it,”

The Kokiri start nervously edging back towards their homes; the Deku Tree makes no objection, and I lift Timi, who’s stirring weakly.

“Let’s go see how bad the damage is,” says Saria weakly. I carry Timi out of the meadow and run straight into Navi and Epheremelda.

“Is he okay?” she says hysterically, battering his face. “Timi? Timi! Timi, answer me!”

“He’s  _ fine _ , Epheremelda!” says Kiri sharply. “Get out of his face!”

The lime-green fairy curls up on Timi’s chest.

“I’m sorry!” she says miserably. “I was off talking to Neri, and then the monsters came through and then Navi told me what happened, and-”

“Epheremelda! It’s okay!” Navi soothes. “He’s going to be fine.”

“If we put him on his bed, will you look after him?” I ask, and the fairy nods fretfully. Following her lead, I carry Timi through the maze that is his house, laying him out on his bed. He doesn’t seem too in touch with his surroundings, but at least he’s not totally out to it. I step back, looking at him worriedly.

“I’ll draw the curtains when I leave,” I tell Epheremelda quietly. “It’s cold out there,”

“Thank you,” the fairy nods, sitting next to Timi placidly. Hesitating, I turn around and walk back to my house. I take a detour, trudging through the snow to Saria’s place. Pieces of latticework and fence posts are scattered everywhere...pieces of furniture, broken pottery, assorted debris… it’s a mess. I stare blankly at the chaos around me, and indeed, a lot of the Kokiri are just staring blankly at our destroyed village. The trees that dared venture closer into the village have paid the price for their boldness, ripped to shreds with their boughs abandoned in the snow.

Saria is hesitating outside her own house, and I know what the problem is. She’s afraid of what she might find in there. She’s lived here for so many years, so many memories, and a part of my chest seems to wilt at the idea of those memories torn asunder like the furniture. I take her cold hand, trying to ward off the shudders that are making my shoulders twitch. She opens her mouth as if to say something, but closes it again, shaking her head slightly and tugging me into the house.

Her bedframe is shattered into huge, splintered chunks of wood, and the woven mattress has been absolutely destroyed. Shards of broken pottery are scattered everywhere, the remnants of her handmade collection beyond repair. The table is intact, but thrown hard against the wall, so hard that the wood has cracked around it. The painting that’s been on the wall for as long as I can remember is shredded, flakes of the wooden frame littering the ground. Saria balls her free hand and stuffs it in her mouth, making a slight sobbing noise, her eyes glistening, and I swallow hard. This is her entire  _ life, _ torn to shreds and hurled across the floor.

I’m not sure if there’s anything that I can really say right now. I don’t know how to help her. We stand in silence for a few minutes, Navi and Kiri uncharacteristically quiet as they take in the sight. Finally, Saria lets out a long breath and turns away.

“We should see your house, too,” she says dully. I hesitate, but turn to the door to leave, tracing around the edge of the hill and looping towards my house. The snow is crushed, wet and slushy, stampeded by lizard feet, and I can feel it soaking into my boots. I’m not sure if I really want to see my house; it’s sure to be destroyed beyond belief, if they found Zelda’s harp so easily.

“Where’s Zelda?” I ask.

“I think she tried to track which Lost Door the Lizalfos went through,” Kiri says. “She was following their tracks,”

I swallow. I dread to think of what could be done with that harp in the wrong hands; there has to be some way we can get it back.  We approach my house and already I can see the damage; a chair is lying in two pieces on the path. How could they have destroyed the place so thoroughly? It’s as if they’ve done this on purpose. The ladder has fallen over and several rungs have snapped; Saria helps me stand it up again and steadies it as I climb up it. Stepping into my house, I suck in a breath. The table, being carved straight out of the tree, is unmoved, but large chunks have been sliced out of it. My bedframe is still solid, although the head of the bed has been snapped off and is currently residing at the other side of the room. Zelda’s is flipped upside-down, broken into bits and scattered. The bowl of apples that was sitting on the sideboard is shattered, crushed apples sliding underfoot; said sideboard is flipped upside-down with several claw marks marring the underside. There are chunks of wood strewn around that I can only identify due to the absence of the object they used to be. The mattress from my bed is ripped in two, which is a lot more intact than Saria’s was, and Zelda’s is. They appear to have found her pouch quite easily, and from the dents in the wall and the deluge of trinkets that must have belonged to the last owner, I can tell the Lizalfos ripped the pouch open. When the pouches are ripped, everything that’s inside them explodes everywhere. I guess it was too much to hope for, that the harp wouldn’t be found.   
“Oh,” Navi says in a tiny voice, subdued. I straighten my back and turn back towards the entrance, wondering if maybe I should have held the ladder for Saria to climb up as well. Instead, I slide down the wobbly ladder as she steadies it, turning away from my house. She hesitates, as if to say something, but I talk over her.

“I need a drink,” I mutter. “Come on,”

I stride through the slushy snow towards the pond, which is frosted over at the edges and full of floating pieces of wood. Glad for the excuse to let some of my anger loose, I slam my foot into the thin ice and it shatters, floating away on the surface of the cold water. I crouch and dip my hands into the shallows, cupping them to take a drink, and that’s when I spot her. I make a noise somewhere between a shout and a yelp as I flinch violently- “Oh, Hylia!”- then drop to my knees with such force my kneecaps pop. I frantically start reaching for one of the pieces of wood.

“What is it?” Saria asks, and then sees her. “Oh, goddesses!”

I manage to grab the piece of wood and drag it closer, and Navi retches onto the grass at the sight before us.

Crumpled on the damp wood with her blue light flickering weakly, barely visible, with three of her four arms badly shattered and a leg missing entirely, her wings torn and limp, is Neri.

“N-Neri!” I almost whimper, and she makes a slight whining noise.

“Kiri, go get Mido,” says Saria sharply, and I can hear her talking around a lump in her throat as I carefully lift Neri from her makeshift raft and cradle her in my hands.

“L...Link?” she slurs, squinting at me. 

“Ssh, Neri,” I choke. “Mido’s coming. Kiri will heal you,”

Navi moves closer, shaking uncontrollably and murmuring comforts to Neri, a blurred, almost incoherent mix of Hylian and Fae. My hands are trembling, and I start to fret that I might drop the injured fairy. Saria kneels beside me, staring in disbelief at Neri as she breathes heavily in my hands.

Loud, uneven footsteps behind us alert me to Mido’s arrival; I turn towards him and, trembling, tilt my hands so he can see Neri and Neri can see him. He lets out a choked cry, scooping her out of my palms and howling “What did you  _ do? _ ”

“It...it wasn’t him, Mido,” coughs Neri.

“Kiri!” Saria says desperately, “heal her!”

Kiri stares despondently.

“I can’t,” she says miserably. “I used up almost all of my magic healing Timi. If I had access to a fountain…”

“Can’t you use the pond as a fountain?” Navi demands.

“I haven’t blessed the pond in a long time,” she says, “and it will have worn off by now. And I don’t have enough energy to bless it again now,”

Mido whimpers, holding Neri close.

“It’s okay,” he soothes her, voice cracking, and the way that suddenly he’s the one caring for his fairy is sickening. He’s trying not to cry, and I’m trying not to cry, and Saria’s trying not to cry and none of us are succeeding.

This is the first time I’ve ever seen Mido cry.

_ I want those Lizalfos dead. _

It almost scares me, a little.  _ I want the Lizalfos dead. _ I’ve never felt so… so  _ malicious  _ towards something. My hands are still shaking but I think it’s anger now, and I take several deep breaths. Change the subject. Something lighter.

“Y-you know,” I say, and Mido flinches violently as I break the silence, “I never thanked you guys for saving me from that Gohma in the Deku Tree,”

Mido blinks as if he’d forgotten all about it, and Neri gives a shaky laugh.

“That was...all Mido,” she murmurs quietly, her light dimming even further. “Such a brave...little boy,”

Mido makes an anguished whining noise.

“Someone tell the Deku Tree! H-he can help her!” 

“I don’t think anyone could, Mido,” Saria says quietly, gently. Neri stirs suddenly, making a terrible sound of pain.

“L-look after him! Please!” she begs, and I don’t even know who she’s talking to but I nod, and Saria nods and Navi nods.

How could this have happened? We’re  _ watching her die! _ Surely there’s some way to help her! We can...we can…

With one last weak smile, Neri’s flickering glow goes out entirely, revealing her pale blue features in perfect clarity. Mido lets out a grieved howl, and I wonder why nobody’s coming to his aid, where everybody is, and I can hear shouting but surely they should care that their self-proclaimed boss has lost his fairy, and Mido breaks down entirely and just sobs like someone has torn out his heart and in a way I guess they have. I don’t even register deciding to hug him until my arms are around him and he doesn’t even care that it’s  _ me, _ he just sobs into my shoulder and Saria rubs his back and murmurs quiet condolences that we all know won’t bring her back. I close my eyes weakly, brow furrowing as the shouts from the other Kokiri start to sound a little more like screams.

And just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, I smell the smoke.


	12. The Hostile Takeover of My Life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The forest folk are burning down, burning down, burning down, the forest folk are burning down, my fair lady...

Any trace of the frost that once graced the ground is long gone, scorched away by the heat that seems to roll forwards, to dry and bake our flesh as we stare in horror. The cool greens of the forest have been substituted for a raging red, contrasted with the pitch-black hue of the charred trees that are bringing the flames closer to us.

For a long moment Saria and I just stare in horror, and Mido doesn’t notice until Navi lets out a shriek of terror and Kiri blanches. 

“Mido,” Saria says, a sick quaver in her voice, “Mido, we have to get out of here. We have to run,”

“W-where to?” I ask her, and my voice cracks. “Our home is burning.”

Mido turns around and I don’t think he even registers the distant flames at first, and when he does his only reaction is to stiffen his shoulders.

“Navi,” I say, “Kiri, you guys are faster and smaller than us. Do you think you can get to the other side of the village and check everyone’s out?”

“Okay,” Kiri says firmly, grabbing Navi’s hand before the now-yellow fairy can protest. Their lights become indistinct against the encroaching flames that seem to be devouring every tree in their path, spreading along the forest on its eager path to the village.  _ Now  _ I understand why fire is so restricted, why it’s so forbidden, and the sight of something so completely invulnerable before me is terrifying. My flesh is hot but my bones are freezing cold in fear. This isn’t something I can kill with my sword. This isn’t like the Gohma. I can’t stop this by hitting it a few times.

“Mido, come on,” Saria says, her voice suddenly sharp and aggressive. “If you’re not going to help us, get into the pond. Fire can’t get you there,”

He just looks at Neri in his hands, still with that look that’s barely distinguishable from the fairy’s blank, unmoving face, and maybe it’s the shock but for some reason it barely bothers me at all as I shove him.

“Mido!” I snap, getting what Saria’s trying to do. He’s not going to listen to a gentle voice. He never has, not even in calm times- the only way to get through to him is aggression. He gives me a hangdog look that doesn’t look right at  _ all  _ on his face, and I grab his arm and hoist him to his feet. “Go!”

He stays there until we hear a colossal cracking sound, like a tree falling but much louder. As we turn, a profound horror fills me as I realise that’s exactly what it is. A tree falling. 

The Deku Tree collapses as his roots and base are burned out from underneath him.

Saria lets out a terrified whine, her hands at her mouth; I can do nothing but stare in disbelief. Mido finally looks up in shock. He backs away from the pond, looking at Neri before suddenly putting her under his hat. There’s a long silence as all of us fight an internal battle against the immediate despair that’s slashing up the inside of our throats and hearts. Mido is the first one to speak.

“I-I’ll help you,” he says shakily. “What do I do?”

“C-circle around to the houses f-furthest from the fire,” I stammer shakily. This can’t be happening. It can’t. “Help the others save what they can before the fire gets there.”

“To the gardens,” Saria says suddenly. “Take the Kokiri to the gardens. Most of the plants are frosted and dead, so they won’t burn for very long. Pull as much of the mulch off as you can and throw it far away from you so it doesn’t ignite,”

Mido nods, looking back at the fire once before stumbling forward, as if he’s not quite sure where his feet are supposed to go in front of him. I feel a trickle of worry at the glazed look in his eyes and wonder if he’s out of it enough to walk straight into the fire. Despite that, I turn and let him work to his own means. Part of my heart is crying out in sympathy, but the rest of me is too busy being terrified to worry about anyone else. Without another word, I start running towards the loudest of the shouts, finding Fado and several other Kokiri battering away at collapsed planks blocking someone’s house. They’re thin, and the group are trying to kick through them; I pull my sword and slash them down the middle, then lift my boot and kick the split boards cleanly in half. Miray stumbles out of the house, covered in sweat with wide eyes, not even stopping to breathe before screeching for Timi.

Oh goddesses. Timi.

I wheel around and bolt towards Timi’s house, shoving my sword haphazardly into its sheath; his house is the biggest fire hazard I’ve ever seen, which isn’t saying much, but if the fire reaches his house and he’s still in there he’s totally screwed. The smoke is rolling through the village as the flames approach, and I try to clear it from in front of me as  I skid through the door. Nothing is on fire, but the thick black smoke is pooling across his ceiling like liquid. I can already hear Epheremelda offering panicked encouragement, and I see a clearly out of it Timi staggering around various furniture. He bumps into a shelf and the whole lot collapses, its contents joining the abandoned musical instruments, boxes and bits of pottery left by the Lizalfos. He looks completely out of control of his limbs, fumbling to try and get around the stack of broken trinkets. I take two steps forward and grab him unceremoniously, carrying the tiny Kokiri out of his smoke-choked house and into the main village, trying not to notice that the fire is already wrapping around the sides of Timi’s house and is eagerly chewing into the bark, lusting after the crammed furniture and trinkets inside. Kokiri are racing in droves to the gardens, checking frantically for friends and fairies; Mido is shepherding several of them, and I feel a sudden flood of affection towards him at the way he’s evidently watching for every fairy that looped hastily passing.

I didn’t think he had it in him to put others’ needs before his own feelings.

I carry Timi to the crowd and drop the short ginger into someone’s arms; I’m not even sure who it is, but Epheremelda grabs my ear and sobs a thank-you before zooming after her drowsy charge. I turn to look at Mido’s face, which seems remarkably calm, and hesitate.

“Have we lost anyone yet?” I ask. He bites his lip.

“I think a few,” he says in a deflated voice. I hear a screech from behind me, turn, and blanch.

I’m pretty sure that was Miray running into Timi’s now fully-flaming house.

Mido looks similarly alarmed. “Does she know Timi’s out?” he asks frantically, and I shake my head, racing back towards the house, past Saria, and ducking inside, choking on the thick smoke and almost tangible heat. Miray is at Timi’s bed, searching around it.

“M-Miray!” I howl, choking on the smoke. “He’s safe! Get out of here!”

She turns towards me at the exact moment I hear a horrifying crack. She looks up just as the fire eats its way inside and the round stump that form’s Timi’s house fails in a catastrophic way. She doesn’t even have time to scream before an enormous chunk of wood collapses inwards and crushes her flat.

My guts heaving, I back out of the house before I meet the same fate.

No time. There’s no time to stop and grieve.  _ Left foot. Right foot. Don’t cry. Left foot. Right foot. Don’t cry.  _ The mantra rattles around my suddenly empty head as I back away from the flaming wreck of the house, trying not to think of the crushed, smouldering frame of what was once a girl that lay under the ruins. Fire everywhere, swirling through the village like a monster free of any form, gloating over the destruction it causes as I keep blindly backing away from what I just saw.

_ Left foot. Right foot. Don’t cry. Don’t think. _

I hear another crack and don’t have the wherewithal to properly heed the warning sound, barely managing to throw myself forwards before one of the enormous struts that support the overhead walkway comes crashing down onto me.

I lose a few moments to the foggy grey of unconsciousness as my brain shorts out completely, unable to register what just happened properly. When I register that I’m conscious again, I lift my face from the ground and force my mind to sharpen slightly, then I try to move. Pure, unadulterated agony rips straight up my legs. A ghastly noise that I don’t want to think about any human making escapes my suddenly tight lungs and, as if the horrifying noise was its cue, my entire body seems to kick into overdrive, trying desperately to assess its injuries and what to do. 

My left leg isn’t as pinned as my right leg- the wood is more damaged there- and with a bit of wriggling I wrench it free, mostly uninjured save for some nasty-looking scrapes. My right leg, however, is caught under the smouldering but solid wood of the strut, and when I try and pull that leg free my vision flares white and my hearing fails as the only sensation my mind has any time for is pain. The white fades, the shouts echoing in again, and I pant. If I can’t get my leg out from under the strut, can I get the strut off of my leg? Lifting my good leg, I position the boot squarely against the wood and shove as hard as I can; the ungodly shriek that rips up my throat makes me stop immediately as everything abruptly turns to white again. I let out a whimper, dropping limply to the dirt face-down. I don’t know what I can do, and my head fades to a subdued buzz as I wait for the fire that devoured the base of the strut to spread up it and claim me too.

It’s agonisingly slow; the fire is now fighting against gravity to make its way sideways along the strut, little motes of flame scattering through the air and landing on the grass, popping it alight. I shut my eyes; I don’t want to watch my own demise crawl closer.  _ Don’t cry. Don’t think. _ I let out another whine, snapping open my eyes and lifting my free foot to kick savagely at the strut again and again, heedless of the agony that makes me want to rip off my own leg. By the time I realise I’ve stopped moving again I have no desire to start again. Can I maybe use my hat to bind my leg as tightly as I can to cut off the bloodflow, wait until it goes numb, and then pull it free regardless of the damage it does? Kiri or Zelda could heal it, I’m sure of it. I reach up and it’s only then that I realise I’ve lost my hat. Craning around, I think I glimpse the green material on the other side of the strut. Can I use my belt, or even my baldric? I go for the buckles and try to pull them loose, to undo them, but my hands keep fumbling and I don’t think I can actually get them off. I can’t lift myself far enough off the ground to get to the belt buckle, and the baldric is attached to the belt. With a groan I let my face hit the ground. There’s that plan gone, and I don’t have another. A whine of despair surprises me as it escapes my throat, but I know it’s right. At this stage, it’s up to fate. And fate isn’t looking very promising.

I hope Navi is safe.

I bet she’ll be fine. She’ll have Kiri to watch her, anyway. A slight smile graces my face; I just had a mental image of Navi and Mido. He just lost his fairy. She’s about to lose her Kokiri. What a match they make. I’m sure they can both get over their prejudices. I close my eyes again. I bet burning hurts. There’s a reason people are screaming. My vision swims out of focus and I don’t even register that I’ve passed out. It’s just like everything has changed colour and the pain has vanished. I still feel fully alert and I hate it, I hate it and I just want to pass out properly and-

_ “Don’t give up.” _

I nearly jump out of my skin at the voice. Chiming and calming, I crane my neck in the blackness to look for the source of the noise. She definitely has a sort of twang to her voice. An accent or something, maybe. A dark anger fills me at her instruction; she’s not the one with her leg crushed completely under an enormous wooden pillar.

“Why not?” I howl at the inky blackness furiously. “ _ Why not? _ ”

The voice isn’t raised or angry.

_ “Because you are not to die yet. You have a great destiny ahead of you. If you were to die it would not be so mundane as to be crushed below a pillar.” _

“Go to hell,” I snarl angrily, kicking out. That bolt of pain tears through me again and I suddenly realise I’m crying, and the black starts to slur back into the flaming forest.

_ “Good,” _ says the voice approvingly.  _ “You are fighting. I will meet with you soon, Master Link. _ ”

The black is gone completely and I can hear shouts and screaming. A familiar scream.

Saria.

Immediately I wrench my neck off the ground and see Mido trying to hold her up- she looks barely conscious, and from what I can see she has ghastly burns marring her back, the rags of the back of her tunic singed and black. She howls a barely coherent version of my name, and I try to pull my leg free again and hate that she has to hear that sickening sound I’m making that, if anyone else had made it, would likely have made me put them out of their misery like many Wolfos-bitten animals we find. I’m no better than a squirrel with great, bloody fang marks ripping apart its fur, with those glazed eyes and the quiet breath. Mido catches my gaze and I recoil at the horror in his eyes. I must look a horrendous sight, with the inferno spiralling around me, burning my arms and chest even though I can barely feel it over the torturous sensation from the leg pinned below the strut. I manage to prop myself up on one elbow.

“G-go!” I shriek at him, even though it kills me to do it. “Get her out of here!”

He stares for a few moments before dragging Saria away. She shrieks, beating weakly at his arms in protest, and I slide back down to rest my head on my arm. This is it, then. The idea doesn’t seem to scare me as much as it did before, and I let out a long breath. Final breaths. They’re thick and smoky, but still breathable. Good enough. I watch Mido back away, painfully slowly, Saria struggling like he’s about to murder her. She’s screeching bloody murder, kicking furiously, and I don’t want to see this. I don’t. I’m doing this to her. It’s my fault.

There’s a sudden blast from behind me and I don’t realise that the weight is gone from my leg until I see shards of the strut fly past, smashing into the ground around me. Someone hauls me to my feet and I howl in abject agony as my injured leg is suddenly expected to hold all my weight. It immediately gives out and I dangle from my saviour’s grip, blonde hair flicking into my face. It’s Zelda, clutching my hat in one hand with the other gripping my shoulder to keep me upright.

She hoists me onto her own shoulder, soot smeared all over her face and a large chunk of hair singed.

“Come on!” she cries, dragging me in the opposite direction to Mido and Saria. I pant, staring at her and trying to gather my thoughts enough to form them into words.

“N-no, this is the-the wrong way!” I get out, and she glares at me.

“You can’t go that way,” she says frantically. “You’ll never make it!”

“I…” 

I stop as she keeps hauling me in the wrong direction, and when I register where she’s taking me the panic reignites immediately.

“What are you doing?” I cry, digging in my good heel. She’s taking me towards the exit of the village, the wrong way. She yanks savagely to dislodge my grip, and I yelp in shock.

“I have to take you out of the woods!” she shouts, pulling me further and further away from safety. Everything is ablaze, crashing in hues of red and black to the ground. “It’s the only way!”

“ _ No! _ ” I snarl, loudly, trying to free myself from Zelda’s grip. Mido, somehow, hears me despite being so far away, and turns; his face freezes in shock when he sees me struggling. He stops, unsure. “Help!” I howl, pride forgotten. She doesn’t know! I don’t care how much Kokiri there is in me at this point; if I leave these woods I’ll die like any of them! She can’t!

Saria’s groggy gaze fixes on me and her face morphs to one of pure terror as she realises what’s happening; her scream cuts straight to my soul. She’s begging, begging Mido to do something, and Mido gently lets Saria down and starts racing towards us. Zelda panics, flinging out an arm; an incredible wind that blows all the flames horizontal catches Mido and hurls him backwards into what remains of a house. He slumps to the ground; dazed or worse, I can’t tell. Fear rises up my throat and threatens to choke me as I kick out again, my bad leg barely responding to my mind but my good one kicking Zelda right in the kneecaps. She screeches in pain, dropping me to clutch at the injured limb, and I drag myself as fast as I can away from her- not fast enough, she sobs as her hands start glowing purple and the limb snaps back into alignment. She lunges for me again but is met halfway by Navi, flying in out of nowhere with a savage expression on her face and her hands burning with pure, unbridled fairy magic. Zelda howls as Navi flies straight for Zelda’s eye, and the blonde collapses with a scream of pure agony, her hands at her eye, and Navi flies straight for me, the light dying away from her hands as she fruitlessly tries to drag me forwards. I get a good distance before Zelda’s shrieks peter out- she’s presumably managed to calm down enough to heal her eye, and Navi yelps in shock as Zelda suddenly lunges and catches her in my abandoned hat. She hurriedly knots the top of the hat shut and shoves it in her belt, Navi’s blue glow throwing itself against the sides, and drags me back to my feet. I try to kick out again but this time she’s ready for it and nimbly hops backwards to avoid the blow. Her face is like something out of a nightmare- stained with soot, one side coated in sparkling violet slime and her newly-healed eye glowing and unfocused. 

I look up to see Saria, racing lopsidedly towards us, and with one hand wrapped around her gut. 

“Link!” she wails. “Zelda! Stop!”

“I can’t!” Zelda screams back at her. “I have to do this!”

“Link!” she screams again, and when I go to shout something to her Zelda covers my mouth. I bite her fingers and she hisses in pain but doesn’t let go, and the second strut collapses in front of Saria. She shrieks in horror, staggering backwards with her sleeve aflame and terror on her face, struggling to beat out the flames before they char her arms like they’ve charred her back, and she manages to put them out before the fabric even darkens much but she’s trapped on the other side of the massive burning strut and then the third one comes crashing down and I don’t see what happens to her but I hear her scream.

“ _ Saria! _ ”

We reach the bridge to leave the village and I lash out, grabbing the ropes and trying to loop them around my fingers. Zelda yanks backwards, hard, and my grip isn’t enough to stop her dragging me backwards. When we reach the other end of the bridge I grit my teeth and startle her by throwing myself backwards; not ready for it, she slams into the ground. I scramble back towards the village, the flaming village that’s completely unrecognizable. I’m shocked that the bridge is still intact. Zelda grabs my bad ankle and I howl as she drags me towards her again. I go for my sword, and swing it around at her; she dodges backwards with a cry and grabs my wrist, twisting the blade from my grip and then swinging the pommel at me with all her strength. There’s a shock of pain from my head and then darkness.

_ Why? _


	13. Orange and White

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The aftermath.

I do not remain unconscious for as long as either of us were expecting.

Goddesses, my mouth is sore. I...I think I can taste iron. Is that iron? Oh, Nayru, is that vomit?  _ Goddesses,  _ that’s foul! Apparently a blow to the head doesn’t work like it always does in the stories- rather than spending several hours limp and uncaring, I awaken to find myself still under the looming jurisdiction of the enormous pillar of smoke rising from the forest- albeit foggy and swimming in and out of focus. Immediately after this observation I arch my back, tip my head to the side and throw up.

Zelda lets out a squeal of shock, dropping me and leaping backwards to avoid said vomit. The impact on the snow-covered ground jolts from my injured leg all the way up my spine into my aching skull. I can feel the snow soaking into my clothes; a slushy, half-melted mess that’s still cool enough to soothe the spot burns across my limbs. I groan, curling into myself and trying to figure out whether I should clutch at my throbbing head or my searing leg; I end up wrapping my hands around my own chest and laying in a whimpering pile in the snow. Zelda creeps closer, clearly apprehensive, and I weakly try and swing my hand at her. She doesn’t bother dodging the pathetic blow and instead scoops me back up and drapes me across both shoulders, one arm looped around my arms and the other wrapped around my dangling legs. I gasp in pain as she jarrs my bad leg, but her only reaction is to adjust her grip. I try to tilt my head and focus on her face but my eyes don’t seem to be responding to what I want them to do, and angling my head sets it thumping painfully anew. Somewhere through the hazy, pain-filled fog I register that she’s still in the process of kidnapping me, and start struggling as much as I can; when I manage to crane my neck down and bite her hand, she yelps and nearly drops me again. Instead she crouches and lays me out on the ground, leaning over me to pull back my eyelids and peer at my pupils, and stick two fingers in under my jawbone to check my heart rate. She seems hesitant, guilty, but places her right hand flat on my forehead, the heel of her hand resting comfortably in the curve of my nose.

“I’m so sorry,” she murmurs, and then there’s a flare of light, my eyes roll back in my head, and I’m out for the count.

**[/]{INTERLUDE- MIDO}[\\]**

He was still waiting for the numbness to fade.

When would he feel it? He looked at the other Kokiri, fallen on the ground, clutching friends, fairies, siblings; their filthy, soot-caked faces shining with tears as they howled in grief. It all blended into one wail of pure anguish, an anthology of the most pain-filled sounds Mido had ever heard all pooled into one, wrapped in thorns and shoved into his very soul. And yet, despite his pity for the other Kokiri, he found himself entirely numb. His own screams of heartache hadn’t joined the others; he couldn’t shed tears for Neri, nor Saria, nor any of the countless Kokiri who they had found and the many more they probably wouldn’t. Shut off. Empty.

He couldn’t feel grateful, either, or even selfish. It was almost as if it hadn’t happened.  _ Okay. So the village was burned to the ground. That happened. What next? _ He wondered what was wrong with him. Surely he should be like the others; crying, curled up on the ground in the ashes of the fires that had only gone out when they reached the thicker snow, where the Kokiri hadn’t spent the last few weeks shifting what might have been their saving grace out of their way. The piled-up snow had apparently dampened the surroundings enough that the fire could go no further; which meant that the other two villages had been spared. The surroundings of their own village, however, were charred and blackened, with the trees that were still upright as dead as doornails and the soil black as pitch. 

Not much had been salvaged- several beds, some tables, a mixture of crooked chairs, and a few people’s cooking boxes. The underground storerooms hadn’t been checked yet, but Mido prayed they had fared well. Without the stored food, the Kokiri were finished. The loss of the shop was a blow- much of their spare fabric had been there, and every scrap of fabric was in need now as the few uninjured Kokiri and fairies flitted around tending to the wounded. Mido had wanted to help, but Fado had forced him down, citing the bloody wound on the back of his head- stupid  _ bitch  _ had thrown him into a  _ wall! _ \- as her reasoning. Beside him was a neatly tied bundle he knew held his dear fairy, although it became easier to deny her absence when he couldn’t see her...her dead body. On his other side, a little further away, was one of the tables, adorned with a few pillows and several-  _ too many _ \- injured fairies laying atop it. Kiri was being soothed by Epheremelda, and looked absolutely livid- it was a downright miracle that she had survived, apparently. Ciela had found Kiri caught under a slew of debris near one of the houses, and the pink fairy was currently struggling to breathe. What little talking she managed was mostly demands to let her see Saria, or to let her help with the healing. Everyone knew she had nowhere near enough strength to do so- she should have been crushed flat by the debris anyway. Small mercies, he supposed. Although they would all be better served focusing on healing Kiri, then letting her take over healing everyone else. Everyone knew Kiri was the go-to fairy if you were hurt, and they definitely needed someone to go to now.

He heard another dreadful screech ring across the gardens and knew someone had just discovered another friend, wounded or worse. Lifting his head slightly, he caught sight of Somi sobbing into his brother’s limp body- _ don’t be dead, please, just unconscious. Please. No more dead people _ . His brother’s limp body  _ sans left leg. _ Mido looked away immediately, his guts heaving at the ghastly sight, and he closed his eyes. This was what his world had come to, now. People screaming in pain and others weeping hysterically because they couldn’t help them. What a disaster. 

And the fact that the Great Deku Tree was gone… well...that just made everything that much worse, didn’t it?

**[/]{END OF INTERLUDE}[\\]**

My second return to consciousness is significantly less dramatic than the first. Squeezing my eyes shut to avoid the sunlight that lances into my eyes like it’s made of steel, I grit my teeth to stop the wave of nausea that threatens to turn itself into vomit and emerge from my mouth. I don’t know how I manage to stop it doing just that, but somehow I do and even manage (what feels like a lifetime later) to open my eyes slightly, although nothing really makes sense in my sight. I try to figure out where I am; the first sense to return is hearing. I can sort of register a rustling sound. Next is a vague sense of my surroundings I’m laying on my back in what feels like a box- a bumping, jolting box with no top. The pieces slowly start to click into place as I register the sound of the wooden wheel below me. I’m in a wheelbarrow, the kind we use to cart tools and vegetables from the far side of the gardens. 

I lose my battle with the rising nausea and barely manage to twist myself upwards so that I can retch over the side of the wheelbarrow. The edges of my vision are sparse, foggy; but the middle of it seems to coalesce into one sickening pool of bright colours and sharp edges; all twisted metal and abandoned scraps. Although my guts want to throw themselves out on the snow, the best I can do is a foul-tasting string of bile that’s barely there, nowhere near enough to sate the sickening nausea that’s tossing me around like an acorn in the middle of a storm-tossed ocean.

Someone’s talking, over and over but it just sounds garbled. Not quite Hylian, but almost. Just on that verge between intelligible and  _ not, _ and it terrifies me to realise that I should be able to understand that, that it should be formed into proper words just like my thoughts should be, and that scares me half to death.

“Farore,” I hear- at least, I think that’s what she says. I see that barely controlled blonde hair make its way into the bizarre mess of jagged points that is my sight right now. “Link, how bad do you feel?”

_ Never been worse, _ I want to say, but I fear if I open my mouth I’ll throw up again. Apparently my non-answer is enough to worry her, because I vaguely hear a deep breath.

“Oh, goddesses, I’ve really screwed you up, haven’t I? Oh, goddesses… argh, I don’t know what to do…”

I can barely register her words through the thick muck that’s my thoughts; every mental step throws gluggy drops across the surface and disrupts the slight coherence that I can put together. It’s not right and I hope she can understand that because I’m not altogether sure what she really has done to me.

She clamps both hands over my ears, making an indistinct noise, and my twisted vision goes violet again as the sickening nausea is slowly erased by a soft feeling that replaces everything with a gentle silky flow. An indeterminate amount of time later, the purple slowly fades out to be replaced with a much-too-bright but accurate view of Zelda’s worried face. 

“Can you hear me?” she asks, voice absolutely saturated in terror and concern. Unsure of whether or not I should actually try to respond, I instead do my best approximation of a glare. It hurts like hell to do it, but her eyeroll in response is good enough.

“Okay, you’re fine,” she says, her shoulders slumping in relief. “ _ Nayru,  _ I thought I’d killed you,”

“Nn...Na...vi…” I manage to groan. Zelda immediately digs at the bottom of the wheelbarrow and comes up with my still-knotted hat.

“She’s here,” she says, picking with her broken nails at the knot until she undoes it and Navi comes flying out of it so fast she overshoots me and has to turn around to come back, collapsing across my face and sobbing uncontrollably. I offer her as good as a smile as I can make at this stage, and she gives me a watery one back.

“Oh, goddesses, I’m so sorry,” she keens softly into my cheekbone, and if fairies had tears my face would be drenched by now. “I should have tried h-harder to protect you…”

“S’okay…” I murmur. “I’m...I’m, uh...g-going to sleep now,”

“No!” Zelda says hurriedly. “D-don’t go to sleep!”

“Why not?” Navi whines pleadingly, a scathing tone of pure hatred undercutting the begging note of her voice. “He needs to rest!”

Zelda hesitates.

“I...I’m not sure how badly I hurt him,” she says.  _ I’m right here, you know.  _ “If I didn’t manage to heal all the internal damage I did when I hit him, it’s not safe for him to sleep. I want him to stay awake for a few hours so I can monitor his condition.”

_ Monitor my condition?  _ What the  _ hell _ did she do to me?

Navi gives a withering glare, tiny teeth bared in a snarl, before turning back to me.

“She’s right,” she says softly. “I’m sorry, but try not to sleep, okay?”

“Ok-k-kay,” I say quietly, wishing I could shut my eyes. I can still smell the smoke in my clothes and skin and hair, and I think there’s vomit on my snow-damp tunic too. It’s all too much. Just too much.

Zelda gets behind the wheelbarrow again and starts trundling it forwards, and the only sound is that of the wheel moving over the uneven snow below. Even her footsteps are quiet, barely noticeable as she trudges through the snow. I stare upwards, fighting against the bone-deep exhaustion that wants to drag me backwards into the depths of unconsciousness; fighting against it is the fear that’s replaced the nausea, broiling in my gut and making me want to tear furrows in the wooden barrow below me.  _ Saria! What happened to Saria? Is she okay? Kiri? Timi, too? Mido, even? What happened to the village? Why did Zelda take me away? Oh, goddesses, what happened? _

I don’t know how long it’s been, but it feels like we’ve been trundling forever when Zelda finally sets down the little wheelbarrow and looks at the sun, which is low on the horizon. There are a few sparse trees here and there around us; if I had to guess, I’d say we were right on the edge of the Lost Woods. The tree provides a good shade from the lightly falling snow-  _ how can it still be snowing when there was so much fire, so much heat? _

“We might have to camp here,” Zelda says, unsure. “I’ll clear some ground for us,”

With that, she spreads her fingers and thrusts the heels of her hands outwards. A wave of hot air seems to ripple around her, and the snow melts almost immediately under the oppression. She clears a space of about three metres under the tree; the wet grass is quickly baked dry by her magic. She turns to face me, letting her arms drop now.

“You can get up now,” she says, crouching to pat the grass with one hand, testing if it’s dry enough. “Come lay down here,”

“C-can’t,” I mutter after a pause. “Can’t stand up,”

She bites her lip.

“Are you still dizzy? I can heal you again, I think I have enough energy left for a minor healing…”

“I don’t think that’s it,” Navi says worriedly. “Link,”

I take a deep breath, trying to lift myself into a sitting position with just my arms.

“The pillar landed on my leg,” I grunt, trying to brace my hands against the planks. “I don’t know how bad it is, but it really hurts,”

Zelda looks doubtful.

“I thought I healed all your burns and stuff,” she says, confused. “Here, let me look,”

She carefully tugs at my boot and I gasp at the jerk. “Sorry!” she says quickly, sliding the boot off as smoothly as she can. She sucks in a sharp breath and I finally manage to sit myself up far enough to see it.

_ Sweet Farore. _ The middle of my calf is a wonderful, wicked shade of purple and, released from its boot prison, has proceeded to swell to nearly twice its normal size. Zelda and Navi stare in shock.

“How the  _ hell _ did you  _ miss that _ ?!” shrieks Navi in horror and fury, rounding on the blonde. Zelda blinks several times in disbelief.

“I-I don’t know,” she says, almost as if she’s talking to herself. 

“Can you heal it?” I ask worriedly. Zelda bites a nail. 

“I can,” she says, and the  _ but  _ is very clearly audible. 

“But?” says Navi immediately.

“But I don’t think I can do this properly without some serious aid. I don’t think even a master magician could fix this completely. I might have to use a proxy,”

“Object based?” Navi asks, and I bite my lip as they discuss magical jargon for a few moments before Navi turns to me. “Okay, Link, here’s how this is going to work,” she explains carefully. “Because this is such a bad break, it’s going to need to be constantly guarded against the healing failing,”

“What?” I ask in confusion.

“Basically,” Zelda says, “when I heal it, it will be like magical nails in your bones holding them in the right spot until they can fuse back together properly. But that’ll take quite a while and hurt like a  _ mother _ , so you’re going to need a second spell to both make sure the magic nails don’t shatter, and that it won’t constantly have you on the ground in agony.”

“So that means that we’re going to make the spell object based,” Navi takes over again. “Remember how we were talking about the spell on Zelda’s song, and how Kiri said spells like that usually need a physical component? We’re going to need something you’ll be able to keep on constantly,”

I frown- the first thing that comes to mind is my boot, but I’ll take that off quite frequently. Zelda sees my hesitance.

“Often, for spells like these, jewellery is used,” she says. “You’ll notice a lot of war veterans will wear necklaces, rings or bracelets to cover for injuries. The spell then drains from their own magic, rather than the caster’s,”

“I don’t have any jewellery,” I point out. “What would I use?”

Navi suddenly brightens.

“What about that old Wolfos tooth you found yonks back?” she asks happily. “Didn’t Saria suggest you should make that into a charm of some kind?”

Moving past the mention of Saria- my heart twists at the thought that she might well be dead right now- I raise an eyebrow, digging a hand into my pouch and coming out with said tooth. 

“Huh. I’d forgotten about that,” I admit, holding it out. “Will this do?”

Zelda inspects the tooth and nods.

“No problem,” she says, digging in her own pouch and finding one of her violet hair ribbons. “We can use this as a chain, since none of us have one,”

“Do you have enough magic to cast the charm right now?” Navi asks her, still sounding rather hostile. “I don’t want you to botch it,”

Zelda pauses, evidently sorting through responses in her head to find the most appropriate. She settles on a nod. “I can do it, I think,”

She lifts the tooth. “Navi, can you put a hole in the top of this?”

The fairy hesitates but places her tiny palm flat against the ivory, and there’s a slight sizzling sound as her fingers blaze with pure fairy magic. When her hand suddenly has no resistance and she lurches forwards, Zelda nods crisply.

“Thank you,” she says, taking the tooth and threading the ribbon through it. She moves behind me for a moment, tying the ribbon in a knot behind my neck, then moves back to my leg. “Grit your teeth; this might hurt,”

She places one hand on the most vibrant part of my leg, and wraps the fingers of the other around the little Wolfos tooth. Squeezing her eyes shut, she murmurs quietly for a few moments before her hands start to glow. That same violet slime starts to coalesce out of her fingers, spreading itself over my leg and spitting a few firefly sparks before fading out of the visible spectrum. The tooth is a blinding lilac, the magic infusing into it, and the pain from my leg seeps away as the bones visibly and neatly realign themselves. When Zelda finally flops backwards, looking haggard and drained, I lift myself upwards and gingerly put weight on the limb. It hurts,  _ goddesses  _ it still hurts, but I can put a little weight on it. The muscles around the not-quite-a-break clench together like a cramp and I hurriedly lift the foot off the ground again, but it’s nice to know I can actually use it now. Zelda looks on anxiously, dropping herself to the ground and leaning against a tree.

“It’ll heal in a few days,” she says, sounding rather guilty. “Here, let me make you up a bed to sleep on,”

To my shock, she unlaces the top of her Kokiri pouch and starts pulling pillows out of it. Then some blankets. Navi blinks in shock.

“Why are you carrying pillows and blankets around?” the fairy asks in surprise. Zelda offers a smile.

“I like to be prepared,” she says evasively, propping the pillows against the tree and spreading out the blanket. “Come on, Link, you must be exhausted,”

I look at her in disbelief.

“Zelda, I...I don’t…”

“What?”

I sink slowly to the ground.

“Zelda, you just kidnapped me and left everyone to die!” It’s not as strong as I wanted it to be. I wanted to yell. Instead it’s more of a pleading whimper that makes me ashamed of my vocal chords and their lack of bravery. Zelda’s face darkens.

“Don’t start on me, fairy boy,” she says shortly, leaning against the pillows and shutting her shadowed eyes. “I just saved your sorry butt,”

I take a deep breath, and Navi lands on my shoulder comfortingly. I wring my hands.

“W-what about the others? You hurt Mido, you-you left Saria to die…”

Zelda lets out a long breath, pausing for a few moments.

“Trust me when I say,” she begins carefully, “that by taking you from the woods I have avoided more hurt than I have caused,”

I grit my teeth- that answers  _ nothing! _ “How do you know that? How can you possibly claim to know that?”

She pauses again, and it sounds strained when she finally responds.

“I always know. That’s the problem,”


	14. The Right Tree to Bark Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zelda finally tells all. It's not what Link wanted to hear.

**[/]{INTERLUDE- ZELDA}[\\]**

It was well and truly night when Zelda finally let herself crack.

Link had long since given in to his exhaustion, and Navi was coiled up on his pillow with her gentle breaths ruffling his hair slightly. She curled into the pillow and let her shoulders slump, fingers working grooves into the rough hemp of the cushion’s fabric. She was almost disgusted in herself when she felt her eyes filling with tears.  _ Get a grip on yourself! You know you did the right thing! _ Despite that other half of her mind belittling her weakness, Zelda startled herself with the sound of her own sobbing, hurriedly quieting herself so she didn’t wake Link. She looked across at his blank face. It was still smudged with soot, even though she had tried to rub it all off when she had stopped to heal his injuries. The empty look scared her even more as she recalled how he had slumped over her shoulders, completely slack. She couldn’t begin to describe her horror when she realised that she may have just sacrificed countless Kokiri lives for nothing; those pained noises he made when he seemed to have little more mind function than a Chu;  _ goddesses,  _ she thought she’d hit him too hard and damaged his brain. For all she knew, she  _ had.  _ It had been the most intense healing she’d ever done, and by the end of it the warm sensation of magic flowing through her had changed into something akin to a not-so-gentle hand dragging a rugged whetstone down the inside of her flesh. Using so much magic had been risky, but losing Link would have been even worse.

She started to doze slightly but was jerked violently awake at the first wisp of a dream- a dream that involved a ghastly scream. She squeezed her eyes shut, barely managing to keep a choked sound in her throat. It wasn’t enough that she suspected her conscious mind would never rid itself of the agonised screams of the Kokiri- now her dreams sought to torment her with the consequences of her actions, too. She wished she could block out the sounds, but it was as if the screams had become white noise in her pointed ears; ever present, unfaltering in its intrusiveness. Whenever it got too quiet she would hear it, always.

Oh  _ Nayru,  _ what had she  _ done?  _ She dug her cracked, ash-caked nails into her palms. This was all her fault! She hadn’t thought, she didn’t register the consequences of her split-second defense until she was standing alone in a raging inferno.  _ Sure,  _ she had stopped the Lizalfos from discovering that luminous blue instrument she had dreamed of...but the dream had warned nothing of fire. Another sob wracked her body. How many had she killed today?  _ Gods,  _ she had killed the  _ Great Deku Tree,  _ the oldest living being known to humankind! And  _ children! _ She had directly caused the horrific deaths of countless children. 

_ Oh, goddesses, I don’t know what to do! _

She almost wanted to flee; run as far as she could. Maybe back home to Castle Town. But that mocking part of her was back.  _ That’s right, you stupid, genocidal coward. Run back to mummy. _ She recoiled at the thought and then sighed. When she didn’t know what to do, there was generally only one viable choice. 

Sleep.

Would it still work without the harp? She hoped so; she needed guidance more than ever. A twinge of doubt soured her faith; look what had happened the last time she had trusted in her dreams. She had directly killed anywhere up to a hundred Kokiri. She almost didn’t want to know the exact numbers. How could she cope, with that many lives on her conscience? She had heard her father speak of having to make hard decisions, of being caught between a hard rock and a rocky hard place, and having to live with the guilt. But this was something new.  _ She had murdered them.  _ She thought of the betrayed look in Link’s eyes, how much he  _ hated  _ her for taking him away. She forced herself to remember the alternative promised by those elusive dreams; his burnt, twisted body only recognisable through that strange force in dreams that allows you to know things you don’t really know. The ruins of Castle Town, with the titular castle ripped to shreds and its bricks scattered across the charred and ruined meadows of Hyrule Field. The bodies in the streets being futilely choked by those horrific clay-like creatures with waxy flesh and mask-like faces, the fallen limp and unresponsive as the unholy humanoids slowly broke their throats open with sheer force. 

Another sob, and another. She contrasted that image to the one she had caused instead; fire eating up the Lost Woods, screaming Kokiri as their flesh roasted and their bones turned to ash, blood coagulating to gravy as they howled unceasingly. She cursed her imagination for creating the first image; she cursed her memory for retaining the second. She had done this. She had murdered Link’s people, murdered so many Kokiri and fairies that she could  _ feel  _ the blight on her soul, spreading as dark ink-splotches over her skin to swallow her up until she was an empty beast lurking in the shadows, dwelling over past regrets. 

She forced herself to remember that there were two other Kokiri villages, two other Great Trees. Surely between them they could repair the damage. But that was only the physical damage. Houses could be rebuilt. Trees could regrow. But Kokiri could not be born again, fairies could not rise from the dead. They were lost, well and truly lost, and Zelda wasn’t sure if she would ever be alright with the price she had paid to save Hyrule from just one avenue of destruction. Her dreams were constantly reminding her that  _ there were more. _ This world had not been made equal and there were unfathomable fates waiting in the wings for their chance to swoop upon the lands and people of Hylia. There was  _ always  _ another terrible fate haunting her shadow, just  _ waiting  _ for her to slip up so it could reach out and wrap its rotting claws around the land it would one day be her duty to protect.

She took a deep breath, her throat feeling constricted and her gut rolling with a sense of shame and horror. She shut her eyes and found herself standing before her own, personal castle; built of thoughts and memories; her place to go when it all got too much. She pushed open the beautiful double doors, her boots suddenly no longer present, allowing her to walk barefoot across the pristine marble floors. She placed a gentle hand on the balustrade, ascending the stairs and standing at the balcony, looking across the room and casting her gaze over the vaulted ceiling. This was where she went when she had nowhere to go. Leaning against the banister, she looked about the room and considered the facts. She had saved Link ( _ what was his significance? _ ) and prevented one path to the downfall of Hyrule. On the floor beneath the balcony, she envisaged a sort of network of lines; different futures branching off from the present, a single line for the past and many for what was yet to come. Some of those lines led to bad places. Some led to good. Swinging her legs over the banister, she dropped lightly from the balcony and walked over to a particular line that forked, and with her toes rubbed out the rusty fork that signified Link’s death and the mysterious Lizalfos’ mistress obtaining that blue instrument. She had prevented that particular failing. The other lines faded a little as she followed the fork that had occurred- Link being saved. As she walked along the line, her thoughts were pencilled in beside it-  _ by preventing the Lizalfos from taking that instrument the forest was burned down. Direct result of my actions. Was it unavoidable? _ \- and she sat cross-legged at the top of the line, where she was now. The present. Ahead, the bold line split again into many smaller lines, each with her speculations sketched beside them. She sighed, standing up and willing away the lines on the floor, which faded to be replaced with the pristine marble once again. Instead, she stepped back and thought about the Kokiri. Countless green lights bloomed across the floor, and she waved a hand and nearly half of the lights flared red and went out. Half were gone. Interspersed were duller, differently coloured lights, many of them; the ones that she had saved from death by stopping the Lizalfos. They outnumbered the vanished green lights, but the room still seemed dimmer. Why was that? Zelda shut her eyes and when she opened them again the beautiful castle was empty of surreal lights, the floor unmarked, polished so much that her own reflection was reflected up at her in perfect clarity. She felt that it looked distinctly guilty, and guilt wasn’t allowed in the castle, so she wiped a toe across its face and made it better. But now it looked fake. Like a painting. She frowned and wiped her toe back across its face and the guilty look returned.

“Why do you look so sad?” she asked it pensively. “You saved lots of people,”

“But other people died,” the reflection said. “It’s not a real victory. You didn’t save everyone,”

“But daddy says you can never save everyone,” Zelda argued. “What makes this time any different?”

“You’re lying,” the reflection said flatly. “You’re trying to pretend it doesn’t bother you. Why would you do that?”

“Link and Navi think I don’t care,” she murmured. “I can see it in their eyes. They think I’m a monster.”

“Are you sure you’re not?” the reflection tilted its head. “Only a monster wouldn’t care about it, and you’re acting like you don’t care,”

“I do!” protested Zelda. “But...I can’t...I…”

“What makes you think that grief could get in the way here?”

“It always gets in the way!” Zelda snapped at the reflection. “I...I have to focus! I can’t get the harp back if I’m too busy crying,”

“You could get it back faster with some help,” it suggested. “Link is a strong swordsman, if unpractised. And Navi’s magic might not be as strong as yours, but it was plenty powerful enough to burst your eye. She’s also much smaller and can sneak places unnoticed,”

“She glows like a lantern!”

“All tasks are easier with a helping hand or two. But all you’re doing is alienating them by pretending you don’t care about all of their friends that just died,”

Zelda bit her lip, thinking. The reflection was right, she supposed. 

“Link won’t want to help me,” she told it. “He wants to go home,”

“You know he can’t go home. You dreamed you had to take him out of the woods for a reason. Surely there is something you can offer in return for his help,”

“I don’t think so. What good will diplomatic rewards do, if all he wants is his family and friends? I can’t raise the dead. That hasn’t been done since the era of the ancient sages,”

The reflection and Zelda were both quiet for a while, thinking, until it came up with an idea.

“Perhaps, on your way, you could come up with something. Tell him that if he helps you you will fight tooth and nail until the Lost Woods are whole again,”

“They’re not whole without their Kokiri, though,” Zelda sighed, sliding cross-legged to the floor. “Or the Deku Tree. I have no idea how I could replace the Deku Tree,”

“I’m sure if you enlist the aid of Impa, or someone of similar age, you could use their knowledge to help. Impa is quite old, you know. She likely knows of many ancient Hylian rituals that could restore the woods,”

Zelda looked at the reflection thoughtfully, and the longer she spent looking at it the less it seemed likely to talk again, until it was just a reflection on the floor and she was sitting in the castle alone. Her misdeeds were still crushing her, and she let her head drop into her hands. She had messed up, badly. She had sacrificed a hundred Kokiri for a thousand Hylians, Gorons, Zora and Gerudo. But those hundred had faces. The thousand did not. 

A hard rock and a rocky hard place. Maybe it was best to just stay there and let someone else do the deciding. As she began to slide into sleep and felt a goddess-given dream begin to colour her mind, Zelda did just that.

**[/]{END OF INTERLUDE}[\\]**

If given the choice, I would have elected to wake up with several different deadly diseases and a missing limb rather than the clarity I am gifted (cursed) with now.

Thankfully enough,  _ shockingly  _ enough, I didn’t dream at all last night, and for that I am grateful to the goddesses in their every incarnation. My dreams are bad enough as it is without adding...without...without yesterday. In amongst all the dreams of skies, caverns, blood, and that indescribable evil that chases you down in nightmares when your limbs won’t respond to your horrified commands, there has never been a nightmare as bad as the one I lived yesterday. Nothing. I...I don’t even want to believe yesterday happened. Surely it couldn’t have.

Now, perhaps, is worse. I can’t even find words at first, as the relaxed haze of sleep melts away when I realise I’m sleeping on a blanket on the ground with a shattered leg and a trail of smoke in the air that means everyone I love is dead. Immediately I lurch to my feet, keeping my weight off my aching leg as much as possible, thankful for the fang looped around my neck for holding together the broken mess I suspect it would otherwise be. Even now, it’s a kaleidoscope of bruised colours; it’s actually oddly pretty, in a way. Stupid nature being beautiful even when it hurts like all hell.

Navi wakes with a rather unattractive noise, sitting up and swiping at her eyes. Then she sobers, years seeming to drop onto her face, as she too remembers what we’re doing here.

“Oh, gods,” she breathes. “Oh my…”

I test out my leg worriedly, in no mood to talk to my fairy. We have to get back! I check to make sure Zelda’s asleep; her hands are gripping her pillow in the death grip I know all too well comes from a bad dream. Towards the end is when you start waking a little and your body starts reacting to what’s happening in the dream. We don’t have much time if she’s going to wake up soon. I start limping forwards, but Navi stops me.

“Wait,” she says. “Can you chop off one of this tree’s branches for a cane?”

I hadn’t even noticed the absence of my sword, and I don’t get why- surely I would have noticed if I’d spent the night sleeping atop the sheath. I find it in the rickety wheelbarrow, and my hands are shaking too badly for me to even hope to somehow attach it to my baldric, so I just unsheathe it and hold the sheath in my off hand while I attempt to hack off one of the branches that I can barely reach even with the extra height of the blade. I quickly give it up as a bad job, sliding the sword back into the sheath and using  _ that  _ as a sort of crutch, helping me keep as much weight as I can off the bad leg. The tip of the sheath sinks into the snow as I begin to painstakingly make my way back towards the pillar of smoke that coils into the air, the final breath of the forest and its children hanging heavy and black over their own ashes. Navi alights on my shoulder, staring despondently at the cloud herself as she lets her wings droop down. Neither of us speaks.

I don’t really know how far I’ve limped when I hear the not-quite distant yelp from Zelda, and I can imagine her jolting upright and clutching at her own limbs. I can only be glad that our intermittent nightmares never fell on the same night. It doesn’t seem to take her long to realise I’m gone, because a few moments later I can hear her calling my name. Navi is uncharacteristically quiet, the only sign that she’s heard Zelda’s holler being the slight tightening of her knuckles on my shoulder. My pace falters slightly as Zelda yells out again, fear evident in her voice, and with a shock of dread I wonder how long it will take her to figure out she can just follow my footprints. I can’t let that happen! I pick up my pace, wondering if I should instead use the sword to sweep away my prints. I don’t know if I can outrun her on this leg but I sure as hell won’t let her just drag me back! Which is exactly what she does. In minutes, she’s raced along the convenient footprint trail and caught up, panting.

“What are you doing?” she demands, breathing heavily. “You can’t go back!”

“You can’t stop me,” I snarl, stumping forward. She moves in front of me.

“Link, I’m serious, you can’t. You have to stop!”

“Get out of his way, Zelda,” hisses Navi, her tiny hands balled into fists. “You’ve done enough damage as it is!”

Zelda flinches at the harsh words, and a part of me gives a little smile. Good! You better feel goddamn  _ awful _ after what you did! She grabs my wrist, a kind of feverish panic in her eyes.

“Link, I’m serious,” she says. “You can’t, you seriously can’t! Don’t, please!”

“Why not?” I say threateningly. “Do tell, you psychopath. You just kidnapped me from my home, which was  _ burning to the ground  _ and filled with my  _ now dead family, _ and you don’t want me to go back?” My voice shakes with anger as I resist the urge to just settle it like Mido might have and punch her right across the jaw. “What excuse could  _ possibly  _ justify  _ anything  _ you have done in the last day?”

Her fingers slacken as she stares at me, slightly taken aback, and then her fingers slip off my arm as her knees shake. 

“I...I dreamed it would happen,” she says quietly, and Navi and I compete for the best face of skeptical indignation. “No, wait!” Zelda protests. “Hear me out!”

I glare at her suspiciously, but bite my tongue. As much as I don’t want to like her, Zelda has always been, above all else, about reason. When she blew up at the Kokiri, it was because their (stupid) reason baffled her. When she taught me to fight, it was because she reasoned that if I was going to get into fights with giant Gohma I would need to defend myself. A part of me wants to believe that Zelda can fix all this, can fix everything and make it all better.

“I...I dream things, sometimes,” she says in a rush, “and those things come true. Sometimes I dream things and then I dream of how I can make them different and stop bad things from happening,”

“This is garbage,” Navi says derisively, turning her back. “Come on, Link.”

“W-wait!” Zelda says, sounding slightly panicked. “Y-you can’t go back, okay?”

“Why not?” I ask her sharply, and she rubs at her upper arms anxiously.

“I...ugh. A few weeks ago I dreamed that the Lizalfos were going to come back,”

“You  _ what? _ ” Navi squeals.

“And you didn’t warn anyone?” My voice ripples with indignation. Zelda holds her hands up placatingly. 

“It wasn’t bad in my dream! There was no fire or anything. Okay, yeah, that boy with the red hair-”

“Timi.”

“-Timi got a little hurt, but Kiri fixed that in the dream. But the bad part was that they took two things. The first was the harp-”

“Which is really bad, because it’s super powerful,” I mutter. Zelda looks as though she wants to get up me for interrupting again, but swallows her frustration.

“Yeah. But it’s one of a pair. In the dream, you slept in, Link. You sleep in a lot, you know? And when the Lizalfos came you weren’t ready and ran to the Deku Tree, leaving your pouch and everything behind.”

“What has this got to do with anything?” Navi says, protectively hugging my neck. “What’s your point?”

“I’m getting there,” Zelda says patiently. “Like you know, Link, the Lizalfos were ripping open all the pouches that they found in the houses. It’s how they found the harp. I...the dream showed me that if I left you in the woods, you would have chased down the Lizalfos. They killed you, and raided your body,” She dreamed my death, and her dreams come true? Farore, what’s that mean for me? And yet, I didn’t chase the Lizalfos. I’m still here. Which means she obviously stopped it from happening...thanks, I guess? But plenty of others still died! “But when they ripped open your pouch, they found something just as good as the harp.”

I frown, unbuttoning the pouch from my belt and examining it. It’s old, worn. Second-hand, apparently, according to Saria. She bought it for me ages back, said it was a present for my birthday. What’s inside it that’s so special?

“I don’t get it,” Navi says after a pause. “Link doesn’t have anything super valuable in there, and owners usually empty their pouches before selling them. What’s in there?”

Zelda flicks her fingers and I pass her the pouch; she flips it open and sticks her arm in and comes out holding a polished blue ocarina.

“Whoa,” I say, a sudden wave of  _ something  _ overwhelming me, and before I even check myself I’ve snatched it out of her hands. It’s warm between my fingers, and I lift it to my lips and play the first tune that comes to mind- the first six notes of Saria’s song. The notes are clear, so clear, much more beautiful than the simple clay ocarina I usually play. “What is this?”

Navi’s staring at it with a conflicted look on her face, and Zelda looks down.

“I...forgive me, Link. When I dreamed of that ocarina, I realised that there was something very big happening here. I don’t think it’s chance you happened upon me in that fountain,”

“Spit it out!” I say, suddenly scared.  _ No! Don’t spit it out!  _ I don’t know if I want to hear this. 

“Link, somehow you’ve gotten caught up in whatever these dreams were given to me for,” she says nervously. “I don’t know. It could be a coincidence. But the fact remains that your Kokiri hat just happens to look a lot like one that’s worn by the hero of Hyrule’s legends,”

“Stop!” Navi blurts. “Stop it!”

Zelda ploughs on, although she looks slightly sick. “It could be a coincidence, like I said. But whatever this is, Link, you’re playing a huge part. That ocarina...that’s an ancient artifact that was said to be passed down through the ages, always ending up in the hands of the hero whenever he was born anew. Somehow that ocarina ended up in the Kokiri forest, in that pouch, belonging to you.”

A sudden sense of horror fills my chest. The legends of Hyrule’s hero aren’t detailed when the Kokiri tell them, but suddenly all appreciation for the fantasy drains out of me as I realise the real meaning. The trials, the battles, the monsters. Killing Gohma was no picnic, and my hands shake as I realise that Zelda’s telling me I might well have to do it again. And again and again and again, until to me they’re as meaningless as children's’ tales told in a moonlit circle in the woods.

“No,” I whisper. “Don’t,”

She takes a deep breath. “You might not be the hero, Link,” she says evenly. “Link is a pretty common name for children born to Hyrulean knights- the hero is almost always of their blood. It could be pure coincidence, and your job is just to hold onto the ocarina for however long it takes for the next hero to come along. I don’t get why the hero would suddenly be Kokiri, if he’s always been Hylian in all his previous lives. So maybe it’s not you. You’re Kokiri, which means you don’t age. You’re the perfect guardian for an artifact like that. You’d be able to hold onto it until the hero came looking.”

“Stop it,” I say, a little louder, although there’s a strange breathiness to my voice. I take a step back, balancing on the sword as both my legs threaten to give out, not just the injured one. Something isn’t right. She’s got this wrong, she has to. Because she doesn’t know her main argument against it isn’t right.

“Link…” Navi hesitates, but we both need to know. “Zelda, Link’s not a Kokiri.”

Zelda nearly drops the pouch.

“What?” she says, thrown off-kilter. “What- what do you mean?”

“I’m not Kokiri,” I repeat tonelessly. “Exactly like she said. I was born outside the forest, and the Deku Tree tried to make me a Kokiri. But he said the spell wasn’t working like it should have.”

“Something was getting in its way,” Navi says, sounding almost ashamed that she’s had to grass on me.

Zelda knots her hands, looking taken aback. “I...uh...oh, wow. I...I need more time to figure this out,”

“Why can’t I go back?” I ask pleadingly. “You...you have loads of magic, you can fix the Deku Tree!”

She wrings her hands harder; does she even know she’s doing it?

“I can’t...I can’t do that myself,” she says after a while. “I’m doing my best to find a solution. Please, you have to understand why I took you away.”

I take a shaky, heavy breath.

“I do,” I say finally, and Navi squeaks in shock. “I get it. The Deku Tree mentioned this ocarina. I don’t want to think about what could happen if the Lizalfos got both,”

“We have time,” Zelda says earnestly. “The harp won’t want to be used by whoever their mysterious mistress is. We have enough time to track them down and get it back,”

I hesitate.

“Why can’t I go home?” I ask again, hating how weak my voice sounds. “Please.”

Zelda looks me in the eye, and it’s a tortured look indeed.

“I dreamed you went back. Last night. You got back to the forest, you started helping to rebuild, you fell. Off a scaffold and broke your neck,”

Navi chokes in horror, and I raise a tentative hand to my neck.

“I...I don’t want that to happen,”

“Then,” Zelda continues, “I dreamed again. I stopped you falling off the scaffold. Then you went foraging for food and got twisted into a Stalfos,”

I swallow.  _ Goddesses,  _ that could actually happen to me. I’m not Kokiri, and the Deku Tree’s not here to protect me from that sick magic that strips flesh from bones and traps souls inside.

“Then, I made you stay. And a pack of Wolfos came into the village and you died trying to kill them. Then I laid a trail and lured the Wolfos away from the village and they never came and got you. Other Kokiri from different villages came, and I don’t know why but you got into a real fight with them. They killed you themselves.”

“I object!” Navi snarls suddenly. “For one, Kokiri would never kill someone! For two, how can you possibly know all this is true? Are you really saying that if Link goes back he’ll die?”

“Yes,” Zelda says quietly. “Every single time I stopped one death, another came calling. Until finally I stopped Link going back to the village at all. And then he lived.”

I swallow, the simple action feeling like I just inhaled a log. 

“You...you’re sure?”

Zelda meets my eyes again.

“The only safe place for you is out here. With me.”


	15. Keeper of the Springtime

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While Link and Zelda travel onwards, Mido is faced with the fight to repair his damaged home.

Zelda quickly takes pity on me and my limping gait, and as soon as we’ve returned (grudgingly) to our little campsite she arranges some pillows inside the wheelbarrow and tells me that while we travel she wants me to lie in there. I don’t bother arguing- pride be damned, I threw up on her twice yesterday. Being carted around is nothing.

When she’s stuffed the blankets and pillows back into her pouch, Navi speaks.

“Did you have those blankets because you knew we would have to leave?” she asks, with the air of someone talking to someone they wish would go away. Zelda hesitates- she’s clearly not used to being disliked- and nods.

“Before the fire, when I figured out that the Lizalfos kept killing Link and taking the ocarina in my dreams, I figured the best way to handle it was to take Link away from where the Lizalfos would find him. Admittedly, I didn’t bring supplies or anything- I thought we’d only be out here for one night and then we’d be able to return,”

“Why didn’t you dream of the fire?” I ask her, settling myself in the wheelbarrow and slotting my sword down beside the pillows. “If you saw all the other things that might have happened, why’d you miss the fire?”

There’s a long pause, and when Zelda finally does respond her voice is full of a sort of anger and loathing that I know can only be directed at herself.

“I don’t know. Sometimes that happens. I missed every sign leading up to a Gibdo plague a few years ago. We had to quarantine half of the country to find out who was and wasn’t infected. It was a nightmare, and not a single psychic or seer saw it coming,”

“That’s...inconvenient,” Navi mutters, settling herself in the top end of the wheelbarrow. She’s glowing with heat and I’m glad for it; it’s freezing cold. It’s not snowing right now, but the temperature is still terribly cold. I’m pretty sure the only reason I didn’t freeze in my sleep is because of Zelda’s little warm-air-spell; given what she was saying about magic using energy, I can’t see her being eager to do that all day every day.

“Sometimes it just happens like that,” Zelda says as she finishes packing and takes the handles of the barrow, trundling it forward through the snow with some difficulty. She doesn’t sound like she’s convinced of her own words. “Some events just can’t be mapped by people with second sight. They just...never appear. No hints. No warnings. They go unnoticed until someone triggers their occurring and then it all goes to hell,”

“Can…” I hesitate. “Did you dream of what happened to the Kokiri? Are they okay? Did Saria make it?”

Zelda gives me a pitying sort of look.

“I can only tell you who I saw when I was dreaming of your different deaths,” she says. “Mido made it, and pigtails-”

“Fado.”

“-Fado was fine. That redhead, Timi, he was there too, he did fine. I saw his fairy, and Kiri too… uh, those brothers survived-”

“Somi and Soti?”

“I think that’s their names. They’re both alive- one’s badly injured, but he’s fine. Uh… I don’t remember much else,”

“Did you see Saria?” I ask pleadingly. Zelda bites her lip.

“I think I did, but I’m really not sure,” she says sadly. “You know how dreams are- half the time people in them don’t have faces, or they vanish when you blink.”

I take a deep breath. Hope for the best.

“I’m sure she made it, Link,” Navi reassures me. “She’s tough, you know. She wouldn’t let a little fire stop her.”

There’s a long silence as we forage for a subject that’s less painful, less raw.

“So...where are we going?” I ask Zelda. She answers immediately, as if waiting for the question.

“The nearest town, by my estimate, is Lochmede,” she says. “We need to reach Lochmede and buy food, warmer clothes and a map. If we’re lucky, we’ll be able to see the Lady Seres in the Great Library,”

“Who’s Lady Seres?” Navi wonders aloud.

“Lady Seres is the caretaker of the Sanctuary Library, located in Lochmede,” Zelda says informatively. “Lochmede was once Hyrule’s capital, before someone decided that a town by the water was much more efficient. Castle Town was built specifically for the purpose of being the capital, and it’s located perfectly. It’s right on the edge of the ocean, and ships move faster than carriages when it comes to goods shipped from Holodrum, Labrynna or the islands. It’s also right near Death Mountain, which means we have an excellent source of Goron iron.”

I hesitate.

“I understood pretty much none of that,” I venture, and Zelda rolls her eyes.

“We put a city next to the ocean because we can get loads of materials by boat,”

“Much better,” I nod approvingly, jokingly posing in my wheelbarrow like it’s a throne. Zelda snorts.

“You’re an idiot,” she mutters, and for a while longer there’s silence.

“Why do we want to see Lady Seres?” I mumble.

“Lady Seres is probably one of the most well-informed people in Hyrule, aside from those in the palace. If anyone knows about the Lizalfos and where they come from, it’s her,”

“How long does it take to get to Lochmede?” Navi inquires, a haughty edge to her words.

“From here? I’d guess maybe a day, possibly two if we’re too slow moving,”

“Can we go without food for that long?” I ask worriedly. “That’s quite a while,”

Zelda’s grimace is pretty much audible.

“We should be able to. Hylians can go for a few weeks without eating, especially if they have water,”

I almost ask where we would find water, before the smart part of my mind remembers that snow melts into water. The conversation stalls again and I wish it wouldn’t, because I find myself brooding over Saria, trying to look at my memory from different angles. That strut came down right on top of her, and I of all people know how easily they can pulp bones. For a horrifying second I can see Saria with her back broken like my leg was; I squeeze my eyes shut against the image, while Navi rests a hand on my shoulder.

“She’ll be fine,” the fairy murmurs. “She’ll be fine.”

It’s sickening how easily time passes. It’s so, so easy to drop into sleep; so, so hard to escape the dreams that are waiting for me, the dreams that I know were real and aren’t really dreams but nightmares. Navi and Zelda have to wake me from each and every one; at one point, I awaken to find I’ve hurled myself from the barrow into the snow. Soaked in snow and shaking, I manage to clamber back into the wheelbarrow and off we go again. I try not to look at the livid blisters lining Zelda’s palms, the flinching way her hands move when she helps me back into the wheelbarrow, the way her hands don’t quite wrap around the handles. One part of me is instinctively begging Navi to heal them before she begins to bleed; the rest of me is doing its best to deny that it’s glad she’s suffering. It’s wrong, I know. So wrong. If the Deku Tree were to hear, he would have me punished soundly for months.

But he can’t. Because he’s dead. Because Zelda as good as killed him by letting the Lizalfos even reach the woods. And then there’s that tiny part that just laughs sardonically whenever I think that; laughs sardonically to cover the pain because I know that if I hadn’t brought Zelda to the woods in the first place none of this would have happened, if I hadn’t broken the rules then the Deku Tree would still be alive and Saria would be fine and all those Kokiri that Zelda can’t name wouldn’t be hurt. And I can’t help but dread that this tiny, insignificant part of me is the one that’s _right._

Hunger is gnawing at my gut when Zelda puts down the wheelbarrow, the sun barely lighting the sky, and even her stoic nature can’t prevent the slight whimper she makes as she immediately crouches and thrusts her splinter-filled hands into the snow. I sit up, ignoring the bark of pain from my leg, and turn to look at her as she chews her lip and squeezes her eyes shut. Navi and I share a look and instinctively look away because no matter what she’s done she seems like the kind of person who hates showing pain. A few ragged breaths later she withdraws her hands from the snow and looks around anxiously.

“I was hoping that we would find a tree or something for shelter,” she says worriedly, “but I don’t think it’s safe for us to keep travelling when it’s completely dark.

After a tentative pause, Navi speaks.

“Don’t you...don’t you want to heal your hands?” she asks weakly. “If you don’t have enough energy for a healing spell, I can do it for you,”

Zelda shoots her own hands a filthy look- as if it was her hands’ fault that they got blistered and full of splinters- and says “No, no, they’re fine. It’s not that bad,” and starts unlacing the top of the pouch again, tugging the blanket out and then throwing it over the wheelbarrow when she realises she’s forgotten to get rid of the snow on the ground first. I watch as she repeats the same routine as last night, melting away the snow and drying the ground, the heat visible to my eyes as the air seems to shimmer.

“How do you do that?” I ask her, and she looks surprised that I’ve asked.

“Magic? It’s...it’s always come naturally to me, for the most part.” she admits. “Simple spells like manipulating the elements aren’t that hard. With this spell, all I’m doing is making the air move around more, making it warm. That makes the snow melt. There’s a better way to do it, manipulating the snow instead of the air, but I’m not as good at that,”

“What kinds of spells can you use?” Navi asks her interestedly. Zelda spreads out the blanket.

“I can use the Three Divine Charms, although I’m no good at Farore’s Wind,” she explains. “I’m best at Nayru’s Love, and pretty good with Din’s Fire. Then I can sort of use a few wind spells, and that’s what I melted the snow with. I can hold a Hover charm for a little while, but not really, and I can throw bolts of magic. That’s about it, really,” she says.

“Is the wind spell the one you used on Mido?” I ask her in a quiet voice. She hesitates.

“Yeah. It was the least lethal spell I knew,” she admits. “I know there are spells to stop things from moving, but I haven’t learned any of them yet. If I’d cast Din’s Fire at him it would have killed him, and a magic bolt would have turned him to dust on the spot. If he’d reached us and stopped us from fleeing then I had no guarantee that we wouldn’t both die, whereas if we got out of there I knew we’d make it,”

I hesitate. _Damn it,_ why does she have to have such good reasoning? It’d be so much easier to hate her if her actions didn’t make sense!

**[/]{INTERLUDE-MIDO}[\\]**

Saria was found on the second day.

Mido, of course, was the one who found her, and when he did he was horrified. She was completely crushed under one of the wooden struts that had once held up an overhead walkway, and with some help from two other Kokiri he managed to roll it off her. Bizarrely, the underside of the strut wasn’t burnt- where it had fallen against her, the bark was smooth and healthy and even sprouting small twigs and leaves. The moment the strut cleared her body, though, was the moment all hell broke loose. Her eyes snapped open and she started shaking uncontrollably.

“What’s wrong with her?” asked Fado loudly, peering at Saria as her arm seemed to jolt upwards without the consent of its owner. Mido blinked as the green-haired girl started moving her head hesitantly, her eyes unfocused, and then started making some rather tuneful noises.

“I haven’t the foggiest,” said the other Kokiri, who took the girl’s wrist in hand to check for a pulse. “She’s alive, for sure, but…”

Saria suddenly screamed, a gut-wrenching sound that had Mido on his knees, frantically trying to calm her. Her legs were both twisted unnaturally, her hips twisted to the side in a sick way that definitely wasn’t possible on healthy living beings; yet she hadn’t seemed to notice until just this second. And yet the scream died out and she just clamped her teeth onto her bottom lip.

“What in the name of…” Mido trailed off as Saria started to twitch, making painful-sounding grunts in the back of her throat, biting into her lip with enough force to draw blood. Mido tried his best to prise her teeth back apart but those particular muscles seemed rigid while all her other ones went absolutely berserk. Then even stranger things started happening; the charred ground around her abruptly sprouted long, thin blades of grass, the strut suddenly started growing branches as if it were once again a tree; leaves, weeds… bizarre manners of plants were sprouting between her fingers, creeping out from under her chest, forcing her hips back into alignment and her legs back into place, looping around them almost lovingly.

The tremors stopped as she suddenly froze and her eyes shot straight forwards, a burning white, before fading back to their natural blue. She seemed to regain a sort of coherence, tilting her head slightly and pursing her bleeding lips in confusion, and Mido ended up just scooping her up into his arms and moving as quickly as he could towards the gardens, where the makeshift hospital had been set up. As he stumbled, however, Saria looked at him in confusion.

“Where’re we going?” she asked, her words a little slurred together.

“Get you patched up,” he said roughly. “You’re hurt,”

“‘M not,” she murmured. “See?” She flapped a foot that was boot free- presumably the shoe had burned away- and displayed no signs of pain whatsoever. “I’m all good,”

He stared for a second but kept going.

“Still. I want Kiri to check you out,” He tried not to betray the fear that was sliding around inside him like a wet fish clasped in his hands. _What in the ever-living hell was that?_ He had _seen_ her legs snapped like twigs, seen the way her lower body was twisted in such a way that her backbone couldn’t possibly be intact- she should never have been able to survive the night, let alone proclaim herself to be perfectly fine now. Something was seriously wrong here.

When he reached the little makeshift hospital, he looked about for a bed to set her on. All of them were occupied, but even as he watched a Kokiri was lifted off a bed and carried away to be lain with all the other dead. Feeling slightly sick, Mido made his way over to the now vacated bed and tried his best to scratch the boy’s blood off the mattress, laying Saria on it. She sat up immediately, looking around in horror.

“Oh, my goddesses,” she breathed, eyes as wide as Deku nuts. “I...I…”

Mido was tapped on the shoulder by Fado, who cocked a shoulder towards the main village.

“Timi says we ought to check the outer woods as well,” she murmured, doing her best to not be heard by Saria. “He says we have no idea if anyone was trapped out there, and we still don’t know what happened to the Deku Scrubs,”

Mido looked hesitantly at Saria, stepping back.

“Wait here,” he told her. “Don’t get up until one of the fairies has checked you out,”

She looked affronted, but before she had a chance to argue Mido had turned to follow Fado. To his shock, Fado handed him a large stick. “What’s this for?”

“In case we meet a Wolfos along the way,” Fado said, her own stick balanced across her shoulders. “We’re heading in the direction of the Deku Palace, and if we find a Wolfos we’re not going to be able to get to cover in time,”

Mido looked at the stick. Had it really come to this? Was he seriously about to go up against a Wolfos armed only with a _stick?_

Fado must have sensed his discomfort.

“We wanted to go for the Kokiri swords and the Fairy Bow, but we can’t get to that part of the village yet,” she said glumly. “As soon as we can get people in there we’ll be using those to defend ourselves.”

Mido just nodded, following the blonde Kokiri to where Timi was waiting, clutching one of his stilts- burned at the ends, shorter by nearly a metre- like a spear.

“Okay, this is it, then,” he said, still sounding somewhat breathy. He had breathed in a lot of smoke but had refused to stay down, claiming that if he was well enough to help then he’d be damned if he wasn’t helping. Several loud arguments later, Timi had assumed control of the rescue groups they’d dredged together since yesterday afternoon. Without further ado, he stalked into the maze of fallen trees. There were more that were still upright here, but they were spindly and black and they would soon fall as well. Mido could feel his feet blistering against his boots, but he ruefully admitted that he didn’t want to be that person who complained of a minor ailment now. Fado used her stick as a cane- he wasn’t sure what had happened to her in the...the fire, but she had a pronounced limp and tended to wrap her hands protectively around her side when she wasn’t paying attention to what her hands were doing. Mido could have cried, if he wasn’t still feeling so hollow. This was their best; a group of injured kids who could barely walk, hunting for survivors and...and bodies. To bury them, not leave them out here to be...to be eaten by Wolfos like carrion.

Mido could have buried his head in his hands. What had their world come to?

**[/]{END OF INTERLUDE}[\\]**


	16. Carp Jumped Over the Dragon Gate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The travelling duo swap songs of their homes, while the grave robber gains a valuable ally.

**[/]{INTERLUDE-MIDO}[\\]**

The group trekked through the woods for a very long time, eventually reaching the edge of the burned area. Fado’s steps had become sharper, angrier, and Mido could tell that her temper was stewing. She was bickering quietly with Timi, who was quite irritable himself- Mido knew how stroppy the midget could become when denied music and sugar. Despite himself, Mido listened to their arguing.

“...and I don’t see the damn point, Timi! They’re dead as doornails by now and it’s not worth us risking our lives to drag them back! They can contribute to nature where they are, we don’t need to bury them under roots! There aren’t even any roots left to bury them under!”

“It’s only fair to them, Fado! If they ran this far only to burn to death we at least owe them the honour of burying them properly!”

Mido chose to tune out of their argument. He couldn’t quite believe it was even occurring, and the worse part was that he didn’t know whose side he was on. Most of the small body-hunting group were silent, uncomfortable, and perhaps it was the lack of support that set Fado off. To Mido’s shock, she abruptly turned tail and stalked away from Timi back towards the village, snarling something about ‘coming back when Timi had grown a brain’. The group froze in disbelief, watching, and Timi stared for a good thirty seconds before slumping.

“Let her go,” he murmured weakly, his voice still raspy from the smoke. Half of Mido wanted his voice to hurry up and heal already; the other half was glad that he didn’t have to deal with so much of Timi’s irritating Fae accent. Most of the fairies were fairly good at unaccented Hylian, but a few- including Epheremelda- still spoke Hylian with the high-pitched tones of a native Fae speaker. Which of course rubbed off on their charges.

Fado disappeared into the twisted maze of equally twisted, blackened trees, and Mido couldn’t help the foreboding in his gut. This could not end well.

Down one member, nobody inclined to argue (although several cast periodic worried looks over their shoulders in the direction Fado had vanished), the group continued on towards the Deku Palace. What they found was in some ways unsurprising and in others a shock and a brutal blow.

The waters of the Deku Palace, situated in the centre of a swampy region near the river, had turned from their usual murky hues to a violent purple. There were no Scrubs standing guard at the gate, and the Kokiri readied their makeshift weapons as they crept inside. Instead of being empty, however, the Deku Palace was fit to burst with Scrubs, although barely any were upright and moving. Alarming numbers of the wooden creatures lay prone in flowerbeds, making pitiful noises and, every now and then, spewing a foul-looking violet substance from their snouts. Their leaves were withered and dehydrated, their bark cracked, their eyes dull. The few healthy Scrubs were tending to the ill in much the same manner as the terrified Kokiri back in the gardens- far too many injured, nowhere near enough carers.

“What happened here?” Timi tried to ask one of them, but she just looked at him and trumpeted something in Deku. Immediately another Kokiri- Reido? Reimi? Mido didn’t know her name- launched into a hurried discussion in Deku, pursing her lips to form the tooting words of the language. Looking sick, she turned back to the group.

“Their waters were poisoned,” she said, nauseated. “It’s rotting them from the inside,” Another Deku grabbed her sleeve and she turned back, launching back into conversation; her eyes widened and she spun to Timi. “He says that...he says that he saw Zelda taking Link from the forest,”

Mido inhaled sharply. Taking Link from the village was one thing. Taking him out of the forest entirely? She’d kill him!

“He reckons that something was wrong, that Zelda was acting real strange and...hysterical, kinda? Sorry, there’s no proper translation of that...and he says that we shouldn’t be roaming the forest because the Wolfos have lost their dens and are hunting around the woods. And that the Skull Kids are baying for blood,”

Timi blanched, whirling around. Without even taking a second to dramatically say Fado’s name, as the normally theatrical redhead would usually have done, he bolted back towards the village with panic on his face. Mido hesitated.

“You three, stay with the Deku, find out more and help!” he commanded. “The rest of you, with me!” He raced after Timi, leaving Reimi (Reido?) with the Scrubs to translate as he followed the redhead back towards where Fado had run. 

Their run was interrupted by a piercing scream somewhere to their left; without even a cry Timi and Mido simultaneously swerved towards the source of the sound, racing towards the small fairy shrine with the deep pond. They found it, soot-caked and muddied, with a Skull Kid perched mischievously- almost malevolently- on the dais, a wicked gleam in its eyes as it played a song through its flute. Mido stiffened as he felt his flesh tighten in response to the song- this was the magic that made Stalfos, and his blood chilled as he realised that it was affecting him even though he was a Kokiri and should be immune. His limbs locked up in terror, and it was Timi who leaped forward and brained the creature with the remnants of his stilt. The Skull Kid shrieked in outrage, but before it could say anything the raging Timi hit it again. It fled, and the crawling feeling subsided as the group of Kokiri gathered around the pond.

“Fado?” called Timi uncertainly. Mido swept debris from the top of the shrine’s waters and yelped in shock when he saw Fado in the depths, struggling to...stay underwater? 

“Timi, she’s here!” someone said, and Timi turned around so sharply there was a crack from his neck. He peered into the pond.

“Why won’t she come up?” he asked frantically, his accent more pronounced than ever in his panic, and Mido hesitated before jumping in.

The water was shockingly cold, much colder than he’d expected, but he shoved aside the shivers that threatened to wrack his frame and aggressively threw out his arms in broad sweeps, pushing himself lower into the darker water. He came level with Fado and grabbed her, aware of a faint tightness in his lungs, and started kicking out. Fado wasn’t coming willingly- did she know it was him?- and screamed, bubbles erupting from her mouth even though the noise was muted by the water. She thrashed and kicked, and Mido barely managed to hoist her up above the water. Their heads broke the surface one after the other, and Mido greedily sucked in air, his red hair dripping wet and plastered to his face. Someone grabbed his arms and dragged him from the pond; Fado was howling hysterically, her hands clutched over her face. Mido’s stomach turned when he saw her left arm; the flesh had melted away a little ways below her shoulder, giving way to blackened muscle and then shining bone. The ear on the same side was ragged and torn, and her flesh had darkened considerably as it began to give way to the Skull Kid’s song, leaving her skin a dark, earthen hue. Worst of all was when Timi managed to pry her deformed hands from her face; her features were sunken, her cheekbones alarmingly prominent. One eye looked eerily pale, the other was the blank orange of a Stalfos. Had he held any more bile in his gut, Mido would have let it splatter the charred ground- as it was, he had thrown up once too many times already at the sight of gruesome injuries and couldn’t bring himself to do it again. Only Fado’s still-blue right eye was dripping tears; Mido couldn’t even tell if she could see out of the Stalfos eye. She clutched at her ears as if to block out the Stalfos song, unaware that the threat was gone and she wouldn’t become a full Stalfos. She just sobbed, keening and agonised.

“Th-the forest i-isn’t on our s-side!” she howled. “It-it hates us! We’re all g-going to d-die!”

**[/]{END OF INTERLUDE}[\\]**

We lay there staring up at the stars for a very long time, all three of us waiting for another to admit what’s bothering us all. Unsurprisingly, it’s Navi who breaks first.

“Uh, guys?” she asks in a small voice. “Can...I don’t want to sleep, and I’m guessing you don’t either,”

Zelda and I don’t protest. We both know what’s waiting for us in our dreams.

“Can...can we do something to stay awake for a while?” Navi continues. “Just until we’re tired enough that we’ll sleep without dreaming,”

Zelda pushes herself up into a sitting position, crossing her legs.

“I know a few songs and stuff,” she says, and her tone of voice makes it sound as if she’s admitting something embarrassing by saying it. “Some ballads and stuff. I dunno, you guys like music, right?”

I sit up as well, removing both ocarinas from my belt pouch and offering her the blue one- I don’t care how magic it is, I still prefer mine. “You need an instrument?”

She shakes her head, fingers twitching.

“I’d usually use my harp, or a lyre, with this one,” she says ruefully. “But I have neither on me right now, so voice it is,”

I nod, and she hesitantly takes a breath and begins to sing.

“ _ Oh, the stars were fickle fireflies alit against the sky; the moon was one great crystal ball, rolled in clouds on high. The ground it felt as hard as stone, the sky as black as pitch! The world it stood in waiting, for the ride of Alice Rye. _

_ “Her shoes were pointed rubies that clicked loud against the streets; her dress was finest gold forged crisp in perfect pleats. Her hair was dark as shadows, her eyes as bold as night! The earth it shook in fear when Alice came back bittersweet. _

_ “Her hands were pale spiders that rapped against the doors; her voice was silken rivers weaving gently ‘cross the moors. Her words were sweet, sweet honey, her promise music to the ears! The women trembled with their young as they curled on the floor. _

_ “She sang out high and sweet and kind, the children came to her call. She took in hers their tiny hands and promised them a ball. She swore to beauty, joy and fun, but it was pure lies! The mothers wept despair as Alice took them in her thrall. _

_ “She took them to the higher ground, to stare out at the night. On ground stained dark with blood she told them of her plight. She shone their shoes to diamonds, she braided their hair to ropes! She dressed each child one by one for her daughter in the light. _

_ “The children splashed down one by one, in the quicklime sea below. She watched as they struggled to stay afloat; each one in turn let go. She smiled soft and rueful- she had given her daughter friends! The ghosts played and danced together, in the moonlight glow. _

_ “So if your children play at night, keep on them a watchful eye. You never know when that sweet song will summon them to die. There’s no shield to guard against sweet notes, no way to call them home! Be always watching ready for the ride of Alice Rye.” _

The notes peter out into the night and I catch Navi’s troubled look. The Hylian ballad seems much different than those the Kokiri play- they both tell stories, for sure, but ours rarely come with a warning. When Zelda opens her eyes again, when the final echoes of her final note have stopped ringing around her head, she places her hands in her lap primly.

“It’s called  _ The Ride of Alice Rye.  _ Did you like it?” she asks, and I nod.

“Oh, for sure,” I agree quickly. “It’s a very pretty song. But...who’s Alice Rye?”

She sniffs.

“There’s a lot of speculation as to the origin of the song. Some say that Alice Rye was a woman who lived centuries ago, who went mad when her daughter drowned. They say that she took it upon herself to give her daughter friends to play with in the afterlife, so she hunted down all of Alice’s friends and pushed them into the sea from a high cliff, eventually killing every child she could find so that her daughter could play with them.” 

She swallows. “Others say that Alice Rye is a metaphor for pestilence- that the ‘quicklime sea’ wasn’t an  _ actual _ sea, but a representation of the children sinking into illness and disease. That they were ‘dressed up’, so to speak, born and lived for a time, before being plunged into sickness and death,”

Navi makes a miserable sound.

“You Hylians don’t believe in  _ happiness, _ do you?”

“We do!” protests Zelda. “Of course we do! I dunno, I don’t know many songs. One of my housemaids used to sing that song to me, and I remember all the lyrics,”

“Some housemaid,” Navi huffs. “What was she trying to do, give you nightmares?”

Zelda flushes. “Well, can you do any better?”

“All the songs I know are in Fae,” Navi snaps back. “You wouldn’t appreciate them,”

“Are you calling me uncultured?”

“Guys!” I break in hastily, before the fight can escalate, and almost comically they both turn to look at me. “Shall I go next?”

“Oh! Uh, sure,” Zelda nods. “You know some songs,”

“‘Course he does,” Navi sniffs. “He’s Kokiri. Songs are their whole deal,”

I debate between playing the melody or just singing it. 

“Should I sing it or play it? It’s not as good as yours,”

“Can you sing it?” asks Zelda. “I want to hear the words,”

I nod, putting down the ocarinas in my hands- one shining and blue, the other battered and well-loved. My singing voice isn’t as good as my playing, and it’s not as good as Zelda’s, but it’s passable. I take a few moments to recall the words before I begin to sing.

“ _ Deep in the woods there lived a small monkey, Arialk the Bright was he. And playing by his side you would always see, the daughter of the Deku Queen. Wherever he went, she would surely go; although where they ran off to, no-one really knows. One dark day, shadows swept her away; not again did the two ever play. _

_ “Arialk, he searched for her near and far, to take back the princess and hold her in his arms. The trees were dark and the night was black like tar; the Deku Queen she watched him, waiting from afar. And Arialk, he never did come home, though the woods cried his name and the trees did moan. And in his loss the forest folk did know- he had died for his princess a hero. _

_ “The princess, freed, came back to her home in woe; to save her Arialk had taken the final blow. And although she was safe she wept and would not grow; Arialk had left her all alone. The princess never truly was the same, lost in her grief and sorrow. And just as it was when they were young, where he went she surely would go. _

_ “Deep in the woods, you’ll find a small monkey. Arialk the bright is he. And dancing by his side, the little Deku-she; they dance together for eternity.” _

I swallow, my throat dry. That was one of Saria’s favourite songs.

Zelda tilts her head thoughtfully.

“That was an odd one,” she says, mulling over it. “In some places it seemed a little sloppy, but I like the story it told, even if it was a little confusing,”

I bristle.

“Hey, at least my story wasn’t about the murders of multiple children!”

She raises an eyebrow. “No, of course. Yours involved a  _ heroic  _ death, so that makes it all okay,”

I open my mouth to talk but just as quickly close it again. She’s got me there.

Navi sniffles. “Well,” she says haltingly, as if spitting out unpleasant truths slower makes them somehow less potent, “a heroic death is better than being murdered, isn’t it?”

Zelda and I both blink at Navi- this kind of philosophical stuff isn’t what I’ve come to expect from the blue fairy. 

“How so?” asks Zelda, tilting her head. “I’d have thought that death in any form is abhorrent- especially to you, Navi, being a fairy,”

“Well,” says Navi, almost embarrassed by her own words. I know that face- it’s the  _ I shouldn’t have said anything  _ face. “Isn’t it better to die enabling something good to happen then to die without a point?”

I swallow, hard, around what feels like an entire log that’s taken up residence in my throat. I’d bet that Miray would have preferred to die heroically, like a character from one of our plays. I’d bet Neri would rather have died protecting Mido than being ripped to pieces and left floating on a scrap of wood. I’d bet the Deku Tree would rather have died facing off against a foe that threatened his children, rather than having his trunk burned so badly that he had no choice but to give in. I’d bet that every single one of the Kokiri and fairies that aren’t here anymore would rather have died standing between that fire and one of their friends.

Actually, I think they’d rather they hadn’t died at all.

I can just imagine how they would react when they saw their own deaths. Miray would be grossed out, I’m sure, and she’d squeal something about how being squashed wasn’t glamourous before running off to tattle. Neri would wrinkle her brows and try and figure out how something like  _ that _ had managed to occur without her noticing and flying rings around it. The Deku Tree would have been mildly irritated and calmly set precautions in place so that a fire wasn’t possible. But they  _ can’t.  _ I’ll never see that disgusted look on Miray’s face; never see the confusion on Neri’s; never see that enormous raised brow of the Deku Tree ever again. I’m left with fragments of pottery that I might be able to glue together with thick sap but I’ll never be able to really fix, I’ll never be able to make them un-broken, and they’re not shards of pottery but people and memories and there’s no way to get rid of the image of the split-second horror on Miray’s face when she realised exactly what was about to happen, there’s no way to claw Neri’s agonised pleading from rattling around in my ears, no way to forget that stomach-turning kick in the gut that was the moment I realised the Deku Tree was falling. There’s no way for me to think of them without remembering them when they  _ weren’t them anymore _ , but a twisted collection of crushed limbs, torn fairy wings and blackened branches. 

I don’t even realise that I’ve started breathing too fast and too hard until Navi’s high-pitched voice breaks through the rushing blood and white noise in my ears, and I jerk upright, images of burning Kokiri and collapsing trees imprinted on the backs of my eyelids. For a second I’m staring not at Zelda’s worried face but at the sheer terror on Saria’s when that strut collapsed above her and she didn’t even notice it because she was too busy chasing after me. The scream Zelda made when Navi  _ crushed her eye  _ so that I could get away, the shouting and cracking and most of all that sickening roaring sound that was the fire’s mind-numbing triumph bellowed out for us all to hear because we were all dead and there was nothing we could do. We were all dead and I should have stopped it, we were all dead and maybe I should be too.

“ _ Link! _ ”

Suddenly the burning reds are gone and it’s just the white of the snow, the soft yellow of Navi’s worried hue, and the greens and browns of Zelda’s tunic, so easily calm and at complete odds to everything I almost wish was happening right now because it's easier to run than it is to hide. My breath is caught somewhere in my chest where it shouldn’t be, pooling between my ribs and crushing me in the tiny spaces left behind. 

“Ssh, Link, it’s okay, you’re okay,” Zelda is saying, her voice too fast and too worried but at the same time calming and gentle. “Do you know where you are?”

Of course I do, I know where I am, I just know I  _ shouldn’t be here,  _ I should be in a burning forest that I’m responsible for, a burning forest that I might as well have set on fire myself, and I can still feel that scorching heat that threatens to burn me to ashes but it can’t possibly hurt as much as knowing that everyone  _ else  _ was burned and I wasn’t, and I should be there with them in the ashes and there’s still such a huge cloud looming over the trees that I can see from here…

“Link, it’s okay!” Navi soothes, loudly. “You’re okay. You’re fine, see? You’re fine,”

She lands on my palm and wraps her tiny hands around one of my fingers- the closest she can get to holding my hand. Somehow it’s calming, her cold touch pulling me away from the fire, comforting in the way it reminds me I’m not burning. 

“Deep breaths, Link,” adds Zelda. “Come on, look at me,”

I focus on her blue eyes that are so close to my face, and something about the blue- a colour so foreign to fire- reminds me of what’s going on, and the cold of the air around me is, for once, on my side. The chill loops around me, gently untying the knots in my gut and freeing me of the chains wrapped around my chest, letting me take the deep breaths Zelda’s told me to.

“You okay, Link?” the fairy in my palm asks quietly, still thrumming yellow in her concern. I swallow hard, my throat slowly loosening up. She offers me a gentle smile, before turning to Zelda with her antennae quivering dangerously. “What did you do?”

Kinda funny how Navi’s immediate response is to go for Zelda. Zelda raises an eyebrow in a sharp, practiced movement, and it disappears into her bangs.

“I didn’t do anything,” Zelda says smoothly. “In fact, I’d wager to say that  _ you  _ triggered that panic attack,”

Navi burns red immediately. “Hey!” she snaps. “Don’t blame  _ me! _ ”

“You were the one that started with your discussions about whether a heroic death was better than other kinds of death,”

“You hypocrite! You started this by singing your murder song!”

I drop my head into my hands, my elbow resting on my knee, and let out a long sigh. Both of my companions freeze and look at me, twin looks of alarm on their faces, and I almost snigger.

“Can you both shut up?” I ask them, my voice feeling constricted. “Having you constantly at eachothers’ throats is not helping anything,”

I dig my fingers into the rough hemp of the blanket, the familiar texture comforting and good. Something from home, calming my still-racing heart until I can’t feel it thudding in my throat anymore. I want so badly to return to the woods…

“Sorry,” Zelda says in a low voice, and Navi glares at her suspiciously for a few moments before adding her own apology. I wave my free hand.

“Anyone got another song they want to share?”

Zelda pauses. 

“It’s really hard to actually remember songs,” she comments after a while, and I nod. I know that I know loads of songs and their lyrics, but I can’t actually remember which songs I know the lyrics to. Or their tunes.

“We could tell stories?” suggests Navi. Zelda grins.

“Most of the stories I know are horror stories, though,” she says cheekily. “The servants don’t really tell stories- they tell me gossip- but their kids love having someone to share their campfire tales with,”

Navi goes to snap at Zelda and I quickly intervene.

“Nah, that sounds great,” I offer, to Navi’s shock. And let’s be honest, I can’t possibly jump at any more shadows than I already am. But Zelda shakes her head.

“On second thoughts, I probably shouldn’t,” she says. “Might give Navi nightmares,”

The fairy puffs up indignantly, but my slight laugh is enough to placate her, and she sighs.

“You’re so mean,” she says. She goes to continue but is interrupted by a long yawn. Zelda scowls abruptly before yawning herself.

“Damn it, Navi,” she manages through the yawn. “Now we’re all going to do it.”

**[/]{INTERLUDE-THE GRAVE ROBBER}[\\]**

She sat on the roof staring contemplatively at the castle. One way in, watched around the clock by multiple guards- at least lieutenants, judging by their chainmail and coloured scarves- red was for lieutenants, if she remembered correctly. Was it red? Yes, she was fairly sure it was red. Kind of them to wear clothing that denoted their rank- it was similar to how her own people organised their defenses, although the colours stood for different things. So. One way in, multiple guards, complete with drawbridge, portcullis and moat. As if the drawbridge and moat around the town itself weren’t enough. Although she could empathise with a need for security.

The sun was setting and she noted as the guard smoothly changed. She watched until it was too dark to see anymore, at which point she located a lantern, hung on the outside of a building, and positioned herself underneath it. She looked around before gently removing both the tattered grey-green Book of Mudora, along with a new book of a rich emerald that she had bought. She dipped a tired old quill in a pot of the best ink she could steal, and flipped open the Book of Mudora to the first page, beginning to carefully copy down the words. This was going to be a  _ bitch _ of a job, and a part of her was still grumbling about it. There were monks whose jobs it was to do this kind of thing, why did  _ she _ have to do it? Despite that, the other half of her was rather impressed that she had- somehow- managed to make her way onto the map of an ancient Sage, no matter how barmy his letter to her may have made him seem.

She was disturbed hours later by an exceedingly loud noise several alleyways over, and she flinched so sharply she almost tipped ink all over the book. She lifted her head, listening carefully. She could hear what sounded suspiciously like the screaming of a child. A guard spun around sharply, and another came jogging down the alley; the grave robber hid hastily behind a corner.

“What the flamin’ hell was that?” the jogging-guard asked.

“It just… dropped out of the sky!” the first answered, sounding young and terrified.

The older spat on the ground. “Monster spawn, no doubt,” he snarled. “Let’s get it out of the city.”

They chased after the sound, and the grave robber frowned. Pulling out her rope, she threw it around a tall pole with a lantern atop it, and clambered onto the roof of a house. Free-running was a sport of her people; no-one did it better than her. She leaped along the buildings, passing the two guards, and found the source of the screaming, leaping down to the ground and almost twisting an ankle. Not her best landing. She crouched, eyes wide.

It was a child. It wasn’t Hylian; far from. A small form, with sturdy, scaly legs and four talons on each foot, long, scraggly wings- one clearly snapped inwards, under his chest. His eyes were squeezed shut, and his mouth was gaping as he screeched- a sound somewhere between the wails of an injured child and the sound of a hawk; instead of a hiccough, he hooted miserably. Rather than a nose and mouth, a hooked beak sat square in the middle of his face. The grave robber looked up, hearing the footsteps drawing closer. She looked back down at the injured child, and by her estimates he was around twelve. She frowned. A kid could help her a lot; they could reach a lot of places that she couldn’t, and everyone trusted children. Not to mention the wings.

Decided, she hoisted the child onto her hip, careful of his broken wing, and managed to climb back atop the building just as the knights reached the spot. She crossed narrow stone awnings and swore angrily as her jumping ability was impeded by the child; she ended having to clamp his beak shut with one hand to stop him from screeching every time her jumps jostled the snapped bone. When she reached her alleyway, where she had stupidly left all her belongings, including the Book of Mudora, she let the boy down and cautiously released his beak. He had opened his dark red eyes and was regarding her with fear.

“Please,” he whimpered, and he had an odd accent, one the grave robber couldn’t place. “Don’t hurt me…”

“Don’t worry, kid,” she said, digging deep to try and find that point of maternal care that all the Hylian women spoke of all the time. She wasn’t quite sure if she had one, but she at least had to try.

“Look sharp,” she smiled reassuringly. “What’s your name, kid?”

The boy hesitated.

“Quill,” he said finally. “My name is Quill, of the Rito.”

The grave robber smiled.

“Okay then, Rito,” she patted his good shoulder. “Let’s take a look at that wing, shall we?”

**[/]{END OF INTERLUDE}[\\]**

We reach Lochmede the next day, and the guard is slightly nonplussed to see a young girl wheeling a young boy along in a wheelbarrow. 

“Excuse me, miss, what is your business in Lochmede?” he asks firmly, standing in the middle of the road. Behind him is the town of Lochmede, a sprawling mess of stone streets, thin alleyways and blocky, unnatural houses. Looming over it all like a proud parent, or some imitation of the Deku Tree, is a towering, regal castle that looks a little run down on the outside. All over the streets are Hylians, dressed in layers of colourful cloths, bickering at stalls, cheering for a street performer, chasing after their children. 

“Oh, our parents came through earlier,” Zelda says sweetly, effortless charm flipped on as easily as pulling on a hat. “My brother’s really lazy, so I let him ride in the cart,”

Navi, hidden under my hat, wisely advises me to let that one slide.

The guard raises an eyebrow, but there’s a hint of humour playing around his lips. Apparently laziness is something he can sympathise with.

“Your parents? What business were  _ they _ here on?”

“We wanted to see the Great Library!” she says cheerily. “I like reading, don’t you?”

The guard leans on his spear and his hairy face is now clearly smiling. “I don’t, but my wife does,” he says brightly. “Go on in. Enjoy your stay!”

He steps aside to let the wheelbarrow trundle past, and as soon as we’re past him Zelda lets her smile drop in favour of concern.

“He was awfully lax for a member of the Hyrulean army,” she muses. “I would hope that they’re not  _ all _ as relaxed as he was,”

“Calm down,” Navi pipes from my hat. Zelda shakes her head as if to clear it.

“Okay, uh, first things first,” she begins. “People will be trying to sell you stuff. Don’t listen to them. You have no money anyway, but they won’t listen to that. Rule two, keep an eye on your stuff. As much as I’d like to pretend otherwise, thieves aren’t uncommon in Hyrulean cities and they’ll steal your pouch, your weapons or even Navi. Fairies are worth a lot of money,”

“That’s so wrong,” I muse as Navi makes a noise of disgust.Zelda shrugs helplessly.

“That’s just the way it is. Welcome to Hyrule.”


	17. The Answer's Not A Lemon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the Great Library of Lochmede, Zelda finally makes their plan on how to regain the Goddess Harp and repair the forest.

Zelda nudges me out of the wheelbarrow and I am all too eager to comply, shoving myself free of the Link-shaped impression in the blankets. I hesitate as I look at the sword in the wheelbarrow, and Zelda immediately stops walking and helps me affix the sheath to my baldric.

“They might confiscate it when you get into the library,” she warns. “I’m not sure if there’s a no-weapons policy,”

I shrug, taking a few limping steps before I manage to fall back into my usual gait, more or less. “Their decision. Not like I’m going to be fighting any giant Gohma in a library,”

“Don’t jinx it,” Navi moans, tugging on a strand of my hair worriedly. “You’re gonna jinx it,”

“Knowing you, you will, too,” Zelda offers a wry smirk. “You’ll summon some unholy monster out of the woodwork to talk too loudly and stack the books out of alphabetical order,”

“You’re a cow,”

“I’m wounded, Link,”

“Damn you,”

I look at her, a playful, lopsided smile on my face. She offers one in return, a strange look in her eyes. My grin falters. “What’s up with you?”

She hesitates, looking back down at her wheelbarrow. “You’ll call me silly,” 

“Can’t be that silly if it has to do with you. You’re, like, the opposite of silly,”

She frowns. “I think that was a compliment. I could be mistaken,”

“You gonna tell us or what?” Navi demands, tugging harder on my hair. I wince, reaching up to try and prod the offending fairy away from my head. Zelda bites her lip.

“Well...uh, nobody’s ever really insulted me before,” she says with a bashful sort of smile. I stare incredulously.

“You’re happy because I called you a cow?” 

She flushes, turning back to her wheelbarrow in embarrassed silence.

“I told you you’d think it was silly,”

Crap. Fell right into  _ that  _ trap.

“I-it’s not  _ silly, _ ” I hurriedly reassure her. “Just surprising, is all,”

She gives me a slightly suspicious look, one eyebrow raised almost imperceptibly. 

“Really,” she says flatly, pushing the wheelbarrow over the bumpy path. She looks rather unconvinced.

“Of course,” I say awkwardly. “I mean, you may be a...uh, a bit of a cow, but you’re not weird or silly,”

“Of course you’d say that, Link,” Zelda says tiredly. “You’re just trying to butter me up so you can run away at the earliest opportunity,”

I wince.

“No!” I protest. “I didn’t run away this morning!”

“That’s because I woke up before you and Navi,”

“She has a point,” grouses the fairy. “If I’d woken up first I’d have made a run for it,”

“Nobody’s stopping  _ you _ from going back,” mutters the blonde unhappily. “I...I just thought maybe you guys could help me,”

I can actually  _ feel _ Navi turn an indignant red inside my hat.

“H-help you!” she splutters. “You kidnap Link from the woods and feed him some cock-and-bull story about why he can’t go back and then expect us to help you?”

Zelda looks momentarily stricken before her normal even face reasserts itself.

“It was just an idea,” she mutters quietly. “It’s fine if you don’t want to. I- I just figured, since you couldn’t go back to the forest, maybe you guys could help me get my harp back,”

“And  _ why _ would we consent to go even further away from the woods?” Navi demands, her voice rising. A Hylian lady shoots me an odd look, eyes fixed on the red glow emanating from within my hat.

“Chill it, Navi,” I murmur. “You’re glowing too bright,”

Navi repays me for interrupting her by stomping on my head. Zelda, meanwhile, looks genuinely wounded.

“I...it’s not  _ my  _ fault that you can’t go...well, I suppose it  _ is, _ a little….but, we really need to get that harp back!”

“Why can’t you ask your army to help you?” I ask. Zelda’s eyes sharpen and I can tell she’s re-evaluating me. Did I say something dumb?

“I already thought of that,” she says. “The issue is, to do that I’d have to travel all the way to their headquarters in Castle Town, and I definitely can’t go all that way alone.”

“Can you get someone to take you there?” Navi asks her, ever eager to get Zelda out of her hair.

Zelda bites her lip. “I could, but there’s two problems with  _ that. _ The first is the fact that I’d be an unattended young girl with no means of defense- as much as I love Hyrule and want to believe the best of it, I’m not stupid enough to think that I can go that far alone and be completely safe. The second is that I have very little to give in return- I have my gold jewellery, but that might serve to identify me and make the first issue even worse.”

She hesitates. “But there  _ is  _ something I can offer you guys…”

I frown at her. Is that how she sees us? As people she has to pay to stay around and get help from? Okay, granted, I’m not exactly inclined to help Zelda, given that she’s keeping me from going to the aid of the Kokiri, but...does she really think she has to  _ pay  _ us?

“Oh, really?” Navi says, although there’s a subtle note of awkwardness to the question. “And what’s that?”

“My magic,” she says quietly, still staring into the wheelbarrow as if hoping to divine the meaning of life from its contents. “If we can find someone with the  _ skills _ to magically regenerate the forest, I can lend them the volume of magic they need to do it. I’m not sure who could do it, but if we can also find Impa, she’ll be able to help us do it,”

Something in me swells at the idea; the forest returned to its former glory, healthy and happy again. But there’s still a dark blot on that picture.

“What about all the hurt Kokiri? The...the dead Kokiri, the dead fairies? Can you help them?”

Zelda’s face darkens.

“There’s nothing anyone can do for them,” she says miserably. “And even if we could find someone with that exact skill  _ and _ enough magic to bring back  _ all _ of them- which is  _ impossible _ \- I don’t think you’d really want to. There are magician’s horror stories left, right and centre about people who tried to meddle with this kind of stuff. It’s said that the Sage of Death grows furious with anyone who escapes her, and curses them with the worst future the goddesses can dream up.’

There’s a long silence.

“That sounds terrible.”

“It really does,” she mutters back. We stop in front of the huge stone castle, and I look up at it in awe.

“Why is this a library? It looks amazing, like there should be kings and queens here,”

“There were, once,” Zelda says ruefully. “Before Castle Town was built and Lochmede was no longer the capital, this was the residence of the Royal Family. When they moved, though, nobody knew what to do with the gigantic castle left behind. So the first floor is used as charity housing for the poor and homeless, the second floor became the Great Library, and the third floor is used by people of high status when there’s official business- since Lochmede is almost in the centre of the land, it’s a good middle point for diplomatic meetings, although it’s definitely inconvenient for Hylians and Gorons. The Zoran Mountains aren’t too far away from here, although it’s risky for them since it’s a good distance from a river or lake. The Deku weren’t very compromising, though- they completely refused to travel to Castle Town for diplomatic reasons. Said it was too far from the woods. So, Lochmede wasn’t completely abandoned.”

“I can understand why the Deku wouldn’t want to go too far,” Navi sniffs. “Even this is too far from the woods for any decent forest-dweller’s taste,”

Zelda shoots her a look but doesn’t respond, trundling the wheelbarrow over to a stocky tree in the courtyard. I try and ignore the rather painful sensation of my stomach rolling over in circles, as well as the growling noises it’s making. Hunger is not fun at  _ all. _ I try to surreptitiously push on my stomach to quell the feeling and noise- Zelda’s looking worse off, to be honest. She seemed optimistic when I asked, though- she’s convinced that she can find some way to get us food here in the city.

She drags the barrow up alongside the tree and hesitates.

“How are we going to stop this from getting stolen?” she asks arbitrarily, talking more to herself than to me or Navi. She resumes her staring at the wheelbarrow, and after a while I start wondering if there’s actually something in it that she’s staring at because she’s doing a remarkable job of just  _ staring. _ Finally, she sighs and digs around in her pouch.

“Have you got a rope or anything?” she asks me. I pause.

“Uh, yeah, actually,” I say, happy that I’m finally of use. I stick my hand into my pouch, digging around and dumping all the non-rope things that are in my way into the wheelbarrow. I find the rope and set about tying the wheelbarrow’s wheel to a fence post with a tight knot. When I go to stash all my assorted garbage back into my pouch, Zelda sucks in a breath.

“Link, what’s that?” she asks loudly, and I look up to see where she’s pointing. She’s pointing at a round object caked with dry mud and a gritty dust that I can’t quite place. 

“Navi, where’d I get that?” I ask her, because she’s the one who remembers stuff like that. She shoves her way out from under my hat and drops neatly into the wheelbarrow, swiping a hand across the surface of the object and sniffing it.

“This is that dusty stuff the Gohma left behind when it burned,” she says. “You must’ve gotten this in the Deku Tree,”

I vaguely remember kicking the object with my boot, actually. I pick up the object and start picking away fat flakes of dirt, dropping them to the ground as I reveal the actual object. It’s a round green stone encased in a golden frame, a frame that echoes the symbol used by the Kokiri on decorations sometimes. Zelda sucks in a long breath.

“You...you may have just helped our cause very, very much, Link,” she says, taking the stone from my hand and buffing it on her skirt. “Do you know what this is?”

There’s a tone of awe in her voice, akin to the one she used when she was talking about the blue ocarina, and I hesitate.

“A magic emerald?”

She shrugs one shoulder slightly. “Not far off. This is the Spiritual Stone of Forest! Link, have you found any other stones like this?”

I think back. “No. Just the one,”

She stares at it pensively.

“I think we can use this,” she says, a note of excitement in her voice. “Link, these stones are said to be able to grant wishes if you collect all three of them! Don’t you see what that means?”

“We can wish the forest back!” I answer immediately, and the idea lights a fire in my gut. Zelda nods.

“Exactly! All we have to do is track down the other two and wish that my harp never had and never will fall into someone else’s hands. If the Lizalfos hadn’t gotten the harp then the forest wouldn’t have been set on fire, and none of the Kokiri would have died. We can track all this back to that one moment- and all we need to do is change it!”

“How do we find the other stones?” Navi asks, shining brightly with excitement. “We can actually fix this!”

Zelda looks back at the library with a wry grin on her face.

“When in doubt,” she announces, “head to the library.”

She strides off, looking purposeful, and Navi and I watch her go.

“Uh…” Navi asks me, “do you think she expects us to research with her?”

“I hope not,” I respond hesitantly. “I can barely read enough to know where I am on a map,”

“Don’t tell her that,” Navi mutters. “She’ll probably insist we need to see the Great Shaman of Reading Ability to teach you how to read in order to further our quest,”

“Screw that,” I mutter. “I’m not having any delays. We need to get those stones,”

Zelda is positively delighted when she finds that the first floor has food to offer.

Maybe it’s our haggard appearance, or our age, or maybe he’s just that good and can tell our stomachs are in the process of a mutiny against the rest of us. Whatever it is, we haven’t even made it two metres into the building when a man takes pity on us and calls us over. In amongst the many rooms where people of all ages are coiled up together, this particular man- with  _ hair  _ on his  _ face! _ \- has taken refuge in a large room with enormous braziers of fire, along with stoves and grey stone bricks piled into benches. I can only assume this was once the kitchens of the castle.

“You kids look beat,” he says gruffly, giving us the once-over. I’m suddenly acutely aware of our soot-stained clothes, our filthy hair and the way I’m still limping. I catch my own reflection in the steel of one of the braziers; we look positively feral. It’s a miracle the guard at the gate let us in at all. He must have thought we were the saddest pair of children he’d ever laid eyes on. “I can make you up somethin’ to eat, if ya want,”

“Th-that would be lovely, sir,” Zelda says, looking put off at the charity. “Thank you,”

He waves a hand as he digs around in cabinets, emerging with a loaf of bread that looks much smoother than the kind we make in the forest. He pulls a knife from his belt, swipes the blade across the hem of his tunic a few times, and starts to slice the bread into strips.

“Not a problem,” he says. “Bread’s one of the few things we don’t run low on around here,”

Zelda blinks.

“How come? I thought the main wheat farming areas were further south,”

“True,” says the man, pointing the blade at her, “but we’ve got some barley in the foothills of the Zoran mountains. Grows like a charm,”

Zelda bites her lip as the man locates a vegetable of some sort and slices that up too; he makes a noise of approval as he locates a leafy vegetable- purslane?- and adds that, too.

“Uh, sir…” Zelda begins, “why are you helping us? I mean, I appreciate it, truly, but...why?”

He finds some mismatched bowls and tips the sliced-up bread and vegetables into them, then goes rummaging in yet another cabinet, emerging with a wrapped object.

“Because I can,” he says offhandedly. “What, you tryin’ to tell me I’m not allowed to help some skinny-lookin’ kids every now and then?”

Zelda looks slightly chagrined.

“People usually don’t, sir,” she replies tentatively. “We...we have nothing to pay you with,”

“You’re in a charity house, darlin’,” he says, unwrapping the object to show what appears to be half a ring of a yellowy food. “It’s in the name. Besides, you’re cute as a button. Kids like you shouldn’t look as ragged as you do,”

Zelda blinks as the man slices away at the food; I frown slightly. I...are Hylians really this nice?”

“Is that Ordon goat cheese?” she asks after a while. The man nods.

“There’s benefits to being located in the middle of nowhere. We’re much closer to Ordon than Castle Town is, although it’s still quite the ways. Takes a week for the carts to get here, but we get first pick of the cheese and pumpkins,”

She looks thoughtful.

“Thank you,” she says. The man nods.

“Don’t mention it, kiddo,”

He sweeps the little circles of cheese into the bowls and then holds them out; I stare at it somewhat suspiciously before taking it out of his hand. Zelda examines hers for a moment before plucking a piece of the goat cheese from the bowl and putting it in her mouth. I follow her lead and  _ wow, that tastes good. _ Somewhat sour, slightly, but also creamy at the same time. It’s really good.

“Thank you,” I murmur to the man, who sits cross-legged on the floor. The corner of his mouth twitches upwards. 

“I like your hat, kid,” he says after a while. I blink.

“Uh, thanks?”

He laughs. “You’re a quiet one, aren’t you,”

“Not usually,” Zelda grumbles slightly. “Usually it’s a war and a half to make him shut up,”

The man tilts his head. “Why so quiet then?” he wonders. I swallow.

“I...ah, I’m not really used to grown-ups,” I admit, and the man raises an eyebrow.

“Where’d you come from that’s got no adults?” he asks. “Where’re your parents?”

“He’s a Kokiri,” Zelda says sharply, shooting me a look that tells me I shouldn’t have told the man I wasn’t used to grown-ups. “Well, sort of. Not quite. He was raised Kokiri but I’m trying to help him find...his family,” she lies. The man nods, leaning casually against a cabinet.

“That’s a big responsibility for two kids,” he asks. “How’d you find him in the woods anyway? Thought those woods’re supposed to be cursed,”

“They are,” Zelda says. “He found me. He’d been out exploring and I’d gotten lost. We struck a deal- he helped me out of the woods, I help him find his family,”

I’m rather impressed at Zelda’s lying skills. She has to be making this up on the fly.

“Sounds rough,” the guy says. “You got a family name to go on?”

Zelda blinks. “Uh, no,”

The man winces. “I don’t like your chances, then. Findin’ someone’s family when you don’t know what they’re called ain’t exactly easy,”

“That’s why we came here,” Zelda invents. “You can find anything in the books here.”

The man studies us carefully as we eat, then sighs and runs a hand through his hair.

“You two’ve been through the wringer,” he says after a while. “‘S in your eyes. I don’t really think you’re tellin’ me the whole truth, but then, I don’t blame you either.”

There’s a glint of something I recognise as pity in his eyes, and something in me twists uncomfortably at the thought that this total stranger pities me.

“Can I get a name?” he asks eventually. “I can put out a few feelers...the poor from all over Hyrule tend to flock to Lochmede. ‘S the only town in Hyrule that actually gives a hoot about them.”

“Link,” I say. “My name’s Link,”

“Is that the name your parents gave you?” he asks. “Or one from the forest?”

I hesitate. I don’t actually know.

“Yes,” hisses Navi, so the man can’t hear her. “I didn’t name you that. The name came with you,”

“My parents named me that,”

He nods thoughtfully.

“See, that already narrows the field,” Zelda points out. “Link’s not really a common name outside of knight circles, so there’s that…”

The guy nods again, thoughtful.

“And you’re what, eleven?”

“Nearly,” I mutter.

“And how long have you lived in the woods for?”

“Uh…”

“Since you were like, a few months old,” Navi murmurs, wriggling closer to my ear. “I dunno. You were tiny. And whiny,”

I surreptitiously lift my hand to scratch my hair and pinch her wrist. She kicks me in response.

“All my life, pretty much,”

He winces in sympathy.

“I’ll start askin’ around, then,” he says. “Lookin’ for guards who’ve misplaced a kid named Link ten years ago. It’ll be hard, but there’s no harm in tryin’,”

I feel guilty for leading the man on like this when I know my mother is dead- and then I suddenly realise something.

The Deku Tree said my mother was dead. He said nothing about my father. Maybe this man really can find him! Except...the idea doesn’t really have as much draw as I’d have thought it would. I haven’t really cared before and I don’t suddenly care now. Sure, sure, the early years were kind of crappy, but… well, Navi and the Deku Tree did a decent job. I don’t really miss my real parents and I don’t really need to find them. Is that bad?

Zelda looks slightly uncomfortable as well.

“Thank you, sir,” she says. He waves a hand arbitrarily.

“Don’t mention it, kiddo. Do you have a name? Parents lookin’ for you?”

She hesitates.

“I...I have a name, but I don’t want to tell you. Is that okay?”

“Sure it is. I ain’t pryin’,”

Zelda finishes her food and looks over at me; I hurriedly finish off the rest of the impromptu salad.

“Thank you so much, sir,” she says, taking my bowl and stacking it inside hers before offering them to the man. “If there’s anything we can do in return…”

The man looks vaguely surprised.

“I doubt there is,” he laughs. “We’re all in the same boat here, huh? Ain’t nobody lookin’ out for the lost ones like us. We just gotta look out for eachother instead.”

There’s a kind of epiphany in Zelda’s eyes, and she stares at the man interestedly.

“Yeah,” she says. “We’ve got to look out for eachother.”

He grins.

“You got it,” he says. “Ah, look at you, rarin’ to go. Good luck findin’ what you’re lookin’ for, kids. And say hey to Lady Seres for me,”

“Will do,” I smile. “Thank you so much,”

Zelda stands and straightens her dirty skirt, the brown fabric marked with black ash stains. I pull myself up to my feet beside her, lifting weight off my bad leg. She hesitates a moment more before turning around and heading back towards the stairs, and I take one last look at our helper. Shaggy, unkempt brown hair, even on his jawbones and upper lip- is that a normal Hylian thing? Dark eyes, a warm smile. I’m determined to remember this particular Hylian man. It takes me a while to understand why.

He’s the first person who’s ever really helped me.

Blinking away a sudden onslaught of tears at this revelation, I turn and race after Zelda, weaving through the rooms and taking the stairs two at a time. They double back on themselves and end in a set of two doors, flung open to reveal an enormous room full of shelves, as large as all the rooms below us put together. Although there are windows many of them are curtained, the room instead lit by dozens of glass-encased lanterns. My jaw drops. This is the biggest indoor space I’ve ever seen!

A man with an armful of books spots us and makes his way over, the lantern-light glinting off an odd glass-and-metal contraption that’s balanced on his nose and hooked back over his- whoa, his ears are  _ tiny! _ Tiny and rounded! Dragging my eyes away from his ears, I watch as the man puts his stack of books on a wooden bench to the side and walks up to us, adjusting the odd contraption as he does so.

“Hey there,” he says, a note of worry in his voice, and my stomach twists again. Do I really look that pitiful? “You two okay?”

“Yes, thanks,” Zelda says authoritatively, and the man’s grey eyes narrow slightly behind the glass that obscures them. “I was wondering if you had anything on the Spiritual Stones? Recent stuff, preferably.”

The man tilts his head. “What kind of information were you looking for?”

“How they were made, how they’re supposed to be used. That kind of thing,”

He runs a hand through shaggy black hair, clearly thinking.

“Er, that’d come under mythology, I think,” he says. “Follow me, miss..?”

Zelda regards him suspiciously for a moment, weighing threats, before answering. “Zelda.”

He nods. “Lovely to meet you. I’m Morgan. And you?”

I shrink slightly as I realise he’s talking to me.

“Link,”

He blinks for a moment, staring.

“That...that is interesting,” he says, looking back at Zelda. “Er, miss Zelda, are you by any chance-”

“No,” Zelda says, adding a long-suffering sigh to the end of it. “Parents with a horrendous sense of humour, you know?”

Morgan relaxes slightly. “Oh, okay then. I guess you get that a lot,”

“Like you wouldn’t believe,” Zelda says, and once again I’m struck by her lying skills. “Where would I find those books?”

The dark-haired man folds his arms.

“Right. You’re probably looking for old research texts, then, and they can be tough for people to read. How literate are you?”

“Very,” says Zelda. “I’ve been learning for as long as I can remember,”

“No problems, then,” he says, turning around. “Follow me!”

He leads us around the shelves, following little signs with notes on them. He stops and walks into one section, gesturing to a row. “These ones will be helpful, I think,”

“Thank you,” Zelda says, examining them. She chooses one and locates an armchair, sitting herself in it and propping the book up on her knees. Morgan turns to me. “Is there anything you were looking for?”

I flush slightly.

“I, uh, can’t read very well,” I admit. He nods.

“That’s nothing to worry about,” he says. “Not many people can. It’s usually only the privileged who learn how to read. Can you read at all?”

“Just enough to read signs,” I respond, feeling a little less embarrassed. “It’s not really a skill I’ve needed,”

“Not many do,” Morgan smiles, fixing the contraption on his nose. “I’m sure we have some basic books around here that you might be able to try out. Bedtime stories, old tales, that sort of stuff,”

“Okay,” I agree. “That sounds okay,”

I follow him over to another shelf, watching him fiddle with the cuffs of his deep blue jacket. I really want to know where these Hylians get the dye from to colour their clothes. Zelda’s rich violet dress, this blue jacket...all a far cry from the greens and browns we make in the woods.

“I like your jacket,” I offer, and he looks mildly surprised.

“Oh! Thanks. My wife made it for me,”

“It’s a really pretty colour,” I say. He raises an eyebrow.

“It’s not that fancy,” he says, running a hand over the dark blue. “It’s the lighter blues that are expensive. Niska’s always been a fair hand with a needle and thread, and she found the fabric and couldn’t let it go,”

Yeah, he’s lost me now. Instead I turn to the books he offers me. “Try these out. This one especially- my daughter loves it, and clearly your parents do too,” he says with a lopsided grin. I take the book he offers and huff slightly- when I open it, the first page bears an ink drawing of a rugged-looking man dressed in a tunic and pointed hat.

“Damn it,” I mutter. Even the hat? Seriously? Fate is downright  _ evil. _ Morgan laughs.

“I feel like your parents have very high expectations for you two,” he says, amused. “I’m particularly impressed by your hat. Looks very authentic,”

I go to grab the hat off my head before remembering Navi’s hiding in it, and he laughs again.

“Don’t let me stop you,” he raises his hands. “I think you look quite dashing,”

Navi stifles her giggles and I can feel her wobbling against my hair. I take my books and sit in the chair beside Zelda, letting out a sigh at the soft cushions. Infinitely better than the hard ground under a blanket, or the oddly-shaped configuration of pillows inside the wheelbarrow. I spend a few moments there, just sitting with my head leaning back into the pillows, savouring the comfort.

After a while, I look across at Zelda.

“Hey,” I call softly, and she looks up.

“Yes?”

“What’s that thing on his nose?”

“Don’t be so rude,” Navi hisses.

“Glasses,” Zelda says. “They help you see if your eyesight’s bad,”

“Okay. And how come his ears are so tiny?”

She looks amused at that.

“He’s human,” she says. “Humans don’t have the pointed ears of Hylians, or the wide ears of Kokiri. Instead they have small, round ears.”

“Why, though?”

“Hylians’ pointed ears allow us to hear the voices of the goddesses,” she says primly. “So they’re shaped better to hear them. Humans can’t hear that voice without specific intervention, so their ears are shaped better to hear earthly sounds,”

“Fancy,” Navi remarks. “Quite smart, actually,”

“Exactly. Now let me read,”

She returns to the book and I look at the thin book in my hand, opening it. Unlike Zelda’s book, which is written in crisp handwriting, this one is written in wide, separated letters clearly made for easier reading. Comforted in the fact that I can make out almost all of the letters on this page, I start painstakingly piecing them together into words to read. Navi pushes her way out of my hat and lands on the arm of the chair, surveying the book.

“Why don’t you read to me?” she offers. “I’ll help you if you get stuck,”

I smile gratefully.

“That’d help a lot,” I admit. “I’m not very good at this,”

“You never needed to be in the forest,” she points out. “Reading’s unnecessary,”

“Saria can read,”

“That’s because Kiri thought she ought to. I never saw the need to teach you, until now. There aren’t really that many books in the woods anyway, and a lot of the ones we do have are terribly written drivel that I wouldn’t wish on anyone. Anyway, go ahead and read.”

She flutters up to my shoulder, leaning into the curve of my neck to see the pages better. Her warm skin against my neck is comforting, a presence that seems to just relax my shoulders and neck and just calm me down.

“Thank you for going along with this,” I murmur to her. She lets out a long sigh.

“I don’t understand why you want to go along with her, but I won’t throw you to the Wolfos on this one,”

“I just feel like I should, you know? Especially if I really am this Hero she talks about. It’s kind of my destiny,”

“I don’t really like the idea of destiny,” Navi says sadly. “It’s not really fair that you’re stuck on one path. I think that people use destiny as an excuse way too often,”

I backtrack.

“We’re getting too philosophical here, Navi. I’m just going to read now,”

She huffs a slight laugh.

“Okay then,” she says, and I can feel the smile as her antennae twitch. “Read your own history, then. Let’s see if we can avoid making whatever mistakes they did.”


	18. Charity Does Not Begin At Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Library isn't a home, but it's close enough for now. Mido and Saria think otherwise.

Zelda spends several hours reading her book. Occasionally there’s a frustrated huff as she calls Navi over to explain a word or two she doesn’t understand, but for the most part the only sound is the turning of thick pages. Despite my reading disadvantage I finish my thin book before she completes her enormous tome, and I sit there for a while just thinking.

“That’s some really amazing stuff,” Navi says, looking at the closed book thoughtfully. I nod dumbly along with her. It really is. That’s an incredible name to have to live up to. A part of me quails in disbelief and fear- no way can these stories possibly be talking about someone who would become me. The lyrical stories that the Kokiri tell at midnight, these awe-filled tales that fill the book before me...I think Zelda might be wrong. She has to be.

From the sounds of it, this Hero would never let Mido kick him around, would never cry himself to sleep like a baby, would never flee from a fire threatening his people. All things I have done and will probably continue to do. I suddenly envision myself as Zelda wants me to be- tall, strong and proud, undaunted by the idea of chasing after magical stones all over Hyrule. I’m not that hero. But I suppose until she finds the real thing, I’m the best she’s got.

Navi leans back into the soft chair with a yawn, her glow dimming slightly.

“I’m so tired,” she murmurs, and I frown.

“Why?”

She hesitates. “I...I’ve been staying awake while you two slept at night. I don’t know what the hell Zelda was thinking, sleeping out in the open like that with nobody keeping watch,”

“And did anything come up to us?”

“There was a really suspicious plant that I swear to the gods was moving closer every time I took my eyes off it. I got so frazzled I ended up burning a hole straight through it. It didn’t move after that,”

“I’d imagine not,” I respond dryly, and she shoots me a petulant look.

“You try staying up until all hours of the morning keeping watch! You’d jump at shadows as well!”

“I know,” I laugh. “Thank you so much. Why don’t you get some sleep now?”

“Think I will,” she murmurs. “This chair is very comfy,”

She snuggles into the arm of the chair with a whining noise, closing her eyes. It’s not long before she drops off to sleep, and I tuck my knees into my chest and start on the next book, stumbling across the words. I’ve never needed to read before, but if this is what lies ahead I’d better get an idea now. 

It’s always better to be prepared.

Zelda and I only stop reading when the sun goes down, and by then my head is spinning with so many words it might as well be mush. Reading is  _ hard, _ damn it. Morgan wanders past, switching out the stumpy, melted candles within the lanterns for fresh ones, collecting the lumpy wax to presumably be melted back into new candles. Quite a few of the homeless we encountered downstairs are wandering into the library; some purposefully move towards a shelf and choose a book, others more hesitantly find ones that look simple enough to trawl through with their limited literacy abilities. I quickly scoop Navi up, doing my best not to wake her, and slide her back under my hat where she won’t be seen. Activity is picking up downstairs, sounds echoing into the library as people return to the only place they have to sleep for the night. Zelda closes her book somewhat reluctantly and stands up.

“Excuse me,” she asks Morgan, “are we allowed to spend the night downstairs?”

He blinks.

“Well, sure,” he says. “You have anyone to stay with?”

“No, it’s just us,” she says. Morgan blinks slowly.

“Of course you’re welcome to stay downstairs. Everyone is. There’s also a bathing room, and Seres keeps the place stocked with food. You can use what you like, in moderation of course.”

This Seres lady sounds like the best. I like her and I haven’t even met her.

“Where is Lady Seres?” I ask him. “I kind of want to meet her. She seems like such a nice person,”

Morgan gives a lonely-looking smile.

“She doesn’t really come out of the tower unless she’s tending to the library,” he says gently. “I’m not sure what you’ve heard, but people tend to annoy her. She’s not the most social of people,”

Zelda looks genuinely shocked at this news.

“What? Since when?”

Morgan raises an eyebrow.

“Have you met Seres? You talk as if you know her,”

Zelda flushes. “No. My mother was friends with her when she was younger, though. She always spoke very highly of the Lady Seres. What happened to make her dislike people?”

Morgan gives the sort of offhanded half-laugh I know all too well, the kind that means he’s not going to tell us jack.

“Ah, life in general,” he answers arbitrarily. “You kids look like you know what I’m talking about. This world isn’t exactly the kindest,”

“We can attest to that,” murmurs Zelda, lost in thought. “I’ll just put these books back and we’ll be on our way,”

Morgan pauses. “You can just leave them on the desk. I’m not on the night shift anyway, so it’s not my problem,”

He adds the second sentence with a mischievous smile that immediately makes me like him, and even Zelda’s lips twitch slightly as she scoops my stack of thin books off the chair and moves towards the desk.

“Okay. Thank you, Morgan,”

He tilts his head, fixes his glasses, and offers a warm smile. “My pleasure.”

Zelda dumps the stack of books on the desk as Morgan moves off to tend to the rest of the lanterns, and I follow her down the stairs. She looks about, unsure.

“Where do we actually sleep?” she asks, and she’s probably not actually talking to me. “I mean, how are you supposed to know where’s taken and where isn’t?”

I scratch at a bit of ash and blood caked under my nails. “I was more interested in the offer of a place to bathe,” I admit.

“Me too,” Navi interjects. “It’s normally not a problem for me, but I think I still have Zelda’s eyeball all over my arms,”

Zelda looks disturbed.

“You’re actually a bitch for that, you know,” she says after a while, and her matter-of-fact tone of voice makes me laugh. “No, seriously. That was uncalled for,”

Navi chooses not to answer. Probably for the best.

After a few moments of pointless looking around, someone else comes walking down the stairs.

“What’s wrong?” Morgan asks. “You lost?”

“Yeah,” Zelda admits. “Where are we supposed to sleep? And where’s the bathing room?”

“Follow me,” Morgan says. “I’ve just got to get Beatrice,”

He weaves through the crowds of people chattering and embracing and really being far too touchy-feely for my tastes, and I follow him with my elbows tucked in close. He stops in front of a particular door and knocks on it; it opens to reveal a stout-looking woman.

“Yeah,” the woman says, “she’s grousing for you,”

She opens the door further and Morgan disappears inside; he emerges a short while later plus a small child coiled across his chest. She clings to the stone hung around Morgan’s neck, her fingers knotting into the cord tightly. Morgan realises we’re staring and makes a face almost identical to the one Zelda pulled earlier when she told Morgan that we ‘got that a lot’ in reference to our names. 

“This is my daughter, Beatrice,” he said, a slight edge to his voice as if daring us to call him out on something.

Zelda recovers first. “She’s gorgeous. How old is she?”

“She’ll be two in a few months,” the dark-haired man says, brightening; presumably because we didn’t bring up whatever it is that’s bothering him. Her hands are somewhat odd as well; her fingers are a lot more even in length than seems human. He pushes open a door and we follow him through it before finally stopping before a second door. “You guys go first, I can wait to bath Beatrice,”

I walk straight in, but Zelda freezes up, walking after me stiffly and shutting the door. When I see the basin, already full of water, I stare- how are they making the water flow into it like that without it overflowing?- and go to shed my tunic and hop in. Zelda squeaks and covers her eyes, turning to the wall.

“You go first,” she says. I blink.

“Why can’t we go together?” I ask in confusion. “Why’re you looking at the wall?”

She’s silent for a while that I’m sure means she’s dumbfounded.

“The Deku Tree lets you guys bathe together? Even with boys and girls?”

I frown. “Why shouldn’t he?”

She makes a soft noise almost like a whine of frustration. Navi, ignoring her, dives out of my hat into the water with a squeal of delight.

“I’m not explaining that,” she says. “Go on, hurry up. Have your bath,”

I have absolutely no idea what her problem is, but I undress anyway and take off the necklace- bad idea- and immediately my leg starts aching with the strain of holding itself together. I can’t get the charm back around my neck fast enough.

“Am I ever going to be able to go without this necklace spell?” I ask.

“In a month or so, maybe,” Zelda answers. “Stop dawdling,”

I slide into the water and sigh in contentment as the water leeches out the ash and blood and dirt from my skin, dying the water an ugly clumpy black that vanishes into a hole in the bottom of the basin. The water is emptying out at the same speed that that more is poured in from the spout. As i scratch at the more stubborn grime across my skin, I examine it.

“Where’s this water coming from?” I ask. “And how do they make it flow like this?”

“I think Lochmede gets their water from underground streams and springs,” Zelda responds. “And the bathing system’s a pretty recent idea. You fill a really large tank with water and elevate it- this one’s probably on the second floor- and put a spout in it to pour into the basin here. Then you put a hole of the right size in the basin so that the water flows out of it at the same rate that more water flows in.”

“Where’s the water go?” Navi asks, blowing bubbles.

“They probably use it for watering crops,”

When I’m satisfied I’m clean enough, I get out and dress again, buckling my belt loosely and pulling my boots back on.

“Your turn,” 

“Face the wall, no peeking!”

I turn away as Zelda starts to undress from the multiple layers of clothes she’s wearing, and wait there boredly as she bathes. When she’s done, I look at her as she rubs at a bloodstain on her skirt. “I wish we had clean clothes,” she says wistfully. “I didn’t even think to collect extra tunics before we left the village,”

We leave the room, Navi diving back under my hat, and our problem is quickly solved. Morgan, holding a squalling Beatrice, looks at us with our wet hair and still dirty clothes and takes pity on us.

“If you go down this hallway you’ll find a room full of donated clothes used by the people who can’t afford clothing,” he says over the sound of his daughter’s fretting. “See if you can find something in your size to wear, and we can wash the clothes you’re wearing now,”

“Thank you, Morgan,” Zelda says sincerely, and he gives a little salute and moves into the bathing room. Zelda and I follow Morgan’s directions and find the room he was talking about. Zelda finds a long-sleeved shirt that looks like it will fit relatively well, and I’m drawn to a warm-looking pullover in a shade of dark green. Zelda shuts the door and flicks her hand at me, and I huff before turning around and changing into the quilted pullover, relishing its warmth and the fact that I won’t have to curl up in a freezing ball at night anymore, with Navi burning as warm as she can held close to my chest. I grab a pair of slightly threadbare pants and pull them on, folding up the legs several times. The pullover is closer to a tunic on me anyway- it’s way too large for me, but I button it up tightly and then use my baldric and belt to hold it in place. 

“You done?” I call, gathering up my tunic and hat. Navi evacuates the hat and hovers for a moment.

“Yeah,” Zelda says, and I turn back around. She’s dressed in a layered, long-sleeved blouse with a brown bodice and white sleeves; the skirt is a similar shade of white, patched with brown here and there. She’s also somehow found a fur-lined coat, and she pulls it on over the blouse. 

“Where do I hide?” Navi asks. “I mean, I’m feeling kinda stuffy and all, but I don’t want to get nabbed by some cheapskate looking for a quick handful of rupees.”

Zelda pauses. “In the hood of my coat?” she offers, and Navi nods, nestling into the hood’s thick fur.

“This is really comfy,” she sighs happily, hatting aside a strand of Zelda’s hair that was poking into the hood. Zelda adjusts the clothing and then gathers up her Kokiri garb.

“Let’s get these clothes washed, find something to eat, and then bed. We need to catch up on all the sleep we’ve lost,”

I follow her back to the bathing room and we wait for Morgan to emerge. When he does, it’s with sodden hair and a sulky-looking baby, her ears flat to her head with annoyance. He looks us up and down.

“Did you want to wash your old clothes now?”

“Yes please,” Zelda says politely, and Morgan nods, hitching Beatrice upwards (she hisses at him) and strides off towards another room. This place is  _ huge _ ! He gestures to a small basin and I immediately move forwards and dunk my tunic into the water, scrubbing at the ash smeared all over it, the water quickly taking on a black hue. Morgan offers a lump of soap and I gratefully use it to coax out the more stubborn stains. When I’m satisfied I step back; Morgan takes the basin and empties it into a larger basin, then refills it from a second. There’s a pause while Zelda looks thoughtfully at the tub, then she steps forwards and starts rubbing at the leather of her fur-lined skirt. She must have traded something pretty good for that skirt; fur and leather may be really warm, but the Kokiri don’t kill animals to get them. We usually have to trade with the Deku or sometimes even the Skull Kids if we want leather. She’s being quite careful with it, gently rubbing at it with a soapy hand. She moves on to her blouse, and then the undershirt. When she’s done, Zelda takes the basin and empties it, struggling slightly to refill it, and practically skips to the door with a delighted face and an armful of sodden clothing.

“You can hang them up to dry by one of the fireplaces,” Morgan says. 

“Won’t they get stolen?” Zelda asks worriedly. Morgan shakes his head.

“Not really. I mean, people come here with nothing, but Seres pretty much provides everything we need.”

“What does she get in return?” Zelda asks slowly. Morgan shrugs.

“And that’s the question. I mean, my good old Holodrum morals won’t let me stay here and freeload, so I work for her in the library upstairs. A few of us do that. But most don’t, and she doesn’t seem to demand anything of them. It’s...unnerving, a little,”

I can understand that. Seres provides people with all these fancy baths and ways to wash their clothes and places to sleep and food...and asks nothing in return? I may know jack all about Hyrule, but that doesn’t seem to be right. 

“So how does Seres make her money? To afford all this stuff?” Zelda asks.

“Well, she charges people if they want to take books out of the library, but most of the money is a grant from the mayor and the Royal Family. Apparently they took a shine to the idea of using the old castle as a gigantic charity home,”

As we walk, Morgan gestures to a few chairs set up in front of a fireplace. Several have clothes draped over the back, and Zelda and I add ours to the riot of colours and fabrics, then keep walking. We reach a room with several beds inside, and Morgan checks it.

“This is where I sleep, me and a few others. I think that bed’s spare- if you didn’t mind sharing, you could sleep in here with us. If not, there’s probably spares in other rooms. I’ll warn you, Beatrice might start crying during the night if she wakes up,”

“We don’t mind sharing,” I answer, and Zelda nods.

“I’m not sure I’d feel right in a room of strangers,” she says, looking sheepish. Morgan raises an eyebrow, putting his old clothes in a box beside what must be his bed.

“And I don’t count as a stranger?”

“Not really,” I say cheerfully, pulling off my boots for a second time and putting them at the foot of the bed. I stretch my toes.

“How very kind of you,” Morgan says dryly, straightening. “Dinner?”

“Sounds good to me,” I agree.

“Me too,” says Zelda, aligning her green boots neatly beside mine. 

“Follow me, then,” he says cheerily, and once again we weave through the crowds, this time back to the room we visited with that guy earlier.

I start when I realise that I never got his name.

Walking inside, Morgan hesitates.

“Zelda, would you be a darling and hold Beatrice for me?”

Zelda looks momentarily stunned before she blinks a few times and holds out her arms. Morgan gratefully lets her take the clingy girl, moving Zelda’s hand a little to better support her. “Thank you so much. Anything in particular you want to eat?”

“Uh, Link doesn’t eat meat,” Zelda says quickly. “But aside from that, no,”

“You don’t eat meat?” asks Morgan, bewildered. “Whyever not?”

“It...uh, doesn’t agree with me,” I lie. Badly. I can imagine Zelda’s disappointed face even though she’s not actually making one.

“Fair enough,” shrugs the man, retrieving a pot of some kind and tossing ingredients into it before he jams a lid on it and sticks it in the brazier. Zelda bounces Beatrice on her hip, mumbling some nonsense baby-talk to the infant, who looks at Zelda with a truly befuddled expression. Morgan moves onto making something else with that goat cheese we tried earlier and some fruits, mashing them with a spoon. At one point Beatrice starts to fuss again, and Zelda looks alarmed as she repeatedly shushes the baby. 

“It’s okay, it’s okay, daddy’s right there, see? Daddy’s right there, everything’s good, nothing bad’s happening,”

“She’s hungry,” says Morgan informatively. “That’s her hungry cry,”

“I don’t know babies!” Zelda says, slightly hysterically. “How do you tell the difference between their cries?”

“With practice. Lots of it. That you really won’t want at the time because it’s probably a stupid hour of the night,”

“Never having kids,” whines Zelda as she tries to placate the wailing baby. “I can’t do this,”

I stick out my head like a cucco and stare at Beatrice, then poke out my tongue. She looks so astonished that she stops crying for a moment, trying to figure out what I just did. I poke out my tongue again and the edges of her mouth twitch upwards, and she clasps her hands happily.

“Ha! Baby whisperer!” I proclaim, and at that precise moment Beatrice starts to cry again. My shoulders droop as Zelda shoots me a slightly smug, slightly pained look. “Damn it,”

“Please don’t curse in front of my daughter,” Morgan says, sweeping over with the bowl. “Hey! Lookie here, Bee! Daddy’s got food for you!”

He offers her a spoonful of mashed-up fruit; she regards it suspiciously for a moment before accepting the spoon.

“Nobody’s a baby whisperer,” he says wisely, scooping up more food. “Babies do not care.”

When Beatrice is fed and no longer screaming into Zelda’s pointed ear, Morgan retrieves the pot from the brazier and divides it into three bowls.

“Here you go,” he says. “Sorry if it’s not the best. I’m a mediocre cook,”

Probably not as good as forest fare, but it’s edible.

“Nah, this is great,” I reply, and Morgan nods, already with a mouthful. He eats quickly and efficiently, while Zelda and I take a little longer. Practically the second we’re done he’s taken our bowls and is washing them in the sink.

Why is he doing all this stuff?

“How come you’re helping so much?” I ask him, and he blinks. 

“What, you want to wash the dishes?” he jokes. “Have fun with that, given that you can’t reach the benches,”

I flush.

“That’s not what I meant. How come you’re guiding us around and making us food and stuff?”

“I couldn’t let two beat-up looking kids like you wander around lost and hungry in good conscience,” he says. “I dunno, you look sad. We’ve all been there,”

Sad. Can he really read it on our faces? Could he see the loss of Saria, of the Great Deku Tree, of everything that made up my life, painted in the ash and scratches that were smeared across my face?

To be honest, he probably could.

“Thank you,” Zelda says quietly, rocking a placid and well-fed Beatrice. “You seem nice,”

“Eh, just doing what’s right,” he says, finishing with the dishes and retrieving his daughter from Zelda’s arms. “You two should probably get some sleep. You look smashed,”

“Agreed,” Zelda says, and we head back to Morgan’s room. A few of the beds are occupied already, and I unbuckle my belt and baldric and put them next to my boots.

“Thank you, Morgan,” I say, curling up on the bed next to Zelda. He smiles.

“My pleasure,”

**[/]{INTERLUDE-MIDO}[\\]**

Fado’s screams petered out in the early hours of the morning, leaving Mido curled up, the silence suddenly too loud and too alien to possibly be natural. He leaned heavily into the pillow he’d commandeered to sleep on, the smell of smoke still thick in it. They’d half-carried, half-dragged her back to the camp as fast as they could, but not even Kiri knew how to reverse a Stalfos curse. And if Kiri didn’t know how to do it, then nobody did.

Someone tapped him lightly on the shoulder; Saria, looking haggard but healthy. She still had splinters in her skirt and those bizarre flowers that had sprouted from nowhere were still tangled in her hair. She sat down next to him, letting out a long breath.

“This is a mess,” she said softly, raspy. He sat up as well- who was he kidding, he wasn’t going to sleep anyway. “What happened out there?”

“Fado set off one of the Skull Kids and they started trying to curse her into a Stalfos. She jumped in a spring- song curses don’t work so well underwater, but she couldn’t block it out entirely.”

She reached up and brushed one of the red flowers out of her hair, nodding quietly. 

“And how are you?”

His throat was more choked up and thick than he felt it should be, but what did that matter now? Pretenses were useless with just Saria. He sighed.

“I don’t know,” he said honestly. “I...it just feels kind of blank, you know? As if nothing actually happened. Everyone else is there crying their eyes out or screaming or whatever, and I’m just here wondering why I’m not doing that, why it seems to hurt them so much more than it does me.”

Saria sighed.

“I guess I know what you mean,” she said. “I keep expecting Link to come back any minute. I mean...I don’t even know what h-happened to him…”

Mido hesitated.

“Zelda took him out of the woods,” he said. “One of the Deku saw him,”

Saria’s breath hitched.

“Ou-out of the forest entirely?” she said, slightly too high-pitched to be natural. “Are you sure?”

“They seemed pretty certain,” he replied dejectedly. “Did anyone ever tell Zelda you can’t take a Kokiri out of the forest?”

Saria visibly locked up, her eyes wide.

“No,” she whispered, a sick quaver to her voice. “Oh, goddesses, no,”

Mido closed his eyes. That was it, then. If No-Fairy wasn’t already dead, he would be soon. 

He really shouldn’t be calling Link No-Fairy anymore. Oh, how the tables have turned.

Beside him, Saria’s shoulders shook as she finally crumbled, and for a few moments Mido was frozen in uncertainty. Did he hug her? Leave her to her own devices? He’d never seen Saria cry before, not even that one time all those years ago when he had pulled that (admittedly horrible) prank on her in front of everyone. Then he recalled the way Link - good grief,  _ Link _ \- had wrapped his arms around him when he had lost Neri, and remembered the way he had put Saria before him in the fire.

_ G-go! Get her out of here! _

The voice was wrong, so wrong, a note of terror and desperation that Mido had never heard before, no matter how many times he had taken out his frustrations on Link, not even when Link had been trapped by that spider in the Great Deku Tree, not even when Mido had accused him of cheating and ruined his victory. Something in him stuttered to a stop at the memory. It seemed so much less fair now that No-Fairy ( _ who wasn’t really No-Fairy _ ) was dead or dying. It was supposed to be wrong to do bad things to the dead. He hadn’t been dead at the time, but hindsight was always more accurate than your vision in the present. Always.

He practically lunged forward to wrap his arms around her, and he couldn’t help but note how wrong it was. They just didn’t fit together right. Her shoulder dug into his neck, her chin was sharp against his own shoulder blade, and her hair jabbed him in the eyes. Despite that, though, he held on. A distant part of him noted sourly that he’d been trying to get Saria to hug him for years- and only now, in the wake of Link’s death (or imminent death), did she deign to hug him. He released a long breath.

When Saria eventually stopped sobbing, she lifted her head and looked at him, blue eyes bloodshot and bleary but still somehow possessing an intense gaze.

“Mido,” she said after a while of just staring at him, “I want to go after him,”

Mido’s gut dropped right out of him.

“ _ What? _ ”

If anything, his horrified face seemed to convince Saria even more.

“I want to go after him!” she repeated, more gusto in her voice now. “It’s only been...what, three days?”

“Just about,”

“It’s only been three days. He could still be alive!”

Mido stared. “Key word-  _ could _ ,”

“It’s better than nothing!” Saria snapped, a fire in her eyes. “If it was me or even you out there, he’d go in a second!”

“Saria, they need us here!” he replied sharply. “I mean, good  _ grief, _ we found you crushed under a damn pillar yesterday! You should be  _ dead _ ! We can’t just up and go after him- you clearly got a second chance, do you seriously want to throw it away chasing after Link?”

Saria fixed him with a gimlet glare that was so painfully reminiscent of Neri that for a moment he forgot what he was even arguing against.

“With me or against me, Mido,” she said in a deathly still voice. “I’m going to find him. With or without you,”

Mido could feel the slight sense of stability he’d managed to cobble together since the fire slipping away like wet mud, like melting snow through his hands, like Neri’s light flickering out and the way the forest had swum away in front of his eyes when Zelda had thrown him back. Saria shot to her feet, wiping tears off her face and stalking towards the other half of the village, towards the exit. Mido’s throat locked up as he watched her go, and before he’d even had a chance to start cursing he found himself abruptly on his feet, racing after her.

“Wait!” he hissed, trying not to wake the dogpile of Kokiri behind him. Saria turned, just barely, and he could see the hope in her eyes. A part of him shrivelled at the way she was so blatantly pleading for him to go with her- the way she was willing to leave her beloved woods for Link but wouldn’t even look sideways at Mido before the entire  _ world _ went sideways and now there was only one real way to look, and Mido happened to be in the way. He closed his eyes. “I...I’ll go with you.”

In that brief moment he hated her for the sheer joy that lit up across her face.

“But we can’t just run off unprepared like this! We’ll need food, a map, somewhere to sleep… a way to defend ourselves.”

She stared at him for a moment.

“Kiri will keep us safe,”

Mido stared.

“Are you crazy? We can’t take  _ Kiri _ ! She’s basically stitching the Kokiri together from the boots up, solo! Without her we’re all dead!”

Saria’s hesitancy was obvious. He couldn’t blame her. The thought of leaving the woods with no fairies at all was...well, it wasn’t appealing at all.

“I’ll ask Kiri about it,” she said finally. “Do you remember that time that we tried to build a festival tower, and the whole thing collapsed and a bunch of people got hurt? Kiri got so sick of healing people that she just cast a healing spell on the pond,”

Mido nodded- of course!

“If she does it again, we could take her with us and the others can still use her healing power to put this place back together,” he concluded.

Saria bit her lip. “We could probably take some of the fruits and vegetables with us- the ones we can eat raw, because we won’t be able to prepare them properly outside the forest.”

“And we could take a few of the blades from the maze,” he suggested. “I mean, you probably don’t know how to use them, but I nailed a giant spider in the  _ head _ with one in the Deku Tree!”

Saria made a noise halfway between a snort and a sob, looking up helplessly. “We can take a few blankets with us, maybe, and a pillow. And we can take a map from the shop,”

“No, we can’t,” Mido said slowly. “We lost the whole shop. Only the stuff stored underground survived.”

“So we’re not short on blankets?”

“Nope. We actually have more than enough- you know the shop always makes way too many in winter because everyone buys them,”

“Good,” Saria said firmly. “I’m going to go talk to Kiri,”

She vanished, and Mido felt a thrill of something dangerous run through him. This was uncharted territory. He was seriously planning to leave the woods!

He picked his way through the dogpile of Kokiri, looking for Timi. When he realised that the midget wasn’t one of the many thin figures knotted together in the huddle of nightmare-ridden children, he headed for the makeshift hospital. Sure enough, Timi was hanging over Fado’s side, worry practically dripping from his eyes.

“Timi,” he whispered, and the shorter Kokiri flinched violently before recognising Mido.

“Oh,” he said dully. “It’s just you.”

“Saria and I are going after Link,” he said, hoping to get Timi’s freak-out done quickly; to his surprise, Timi didn’t freak out at all.

“I guessed you would,” he murmured. “You’ll need supplies?”

“Yeah,” said Mido, grateful that he didn’t have to ask. 

“Take what you need, but not too much,” he said, not moving from his owl-eyed vigil at Fado’s bedside. Mido tried not to actually look at Fado’s twisted form. “The gardens are mostly okay, and we have more than enough food to last the winter,”

Neither of them addressed the fact that the only reason there was enough food was because there were less to consume it now.

Mido nodded carefully and made to back away.

“Mido?”

“Yeah?”

“Look after her,” Timi said. “And bring him home.”

Mido swallowed.

“I’ll do my best,” he whispered, slipping out of the gardens and into the darkness.

Come morning, two Kokiri and a fairy had left the forest, the only traces left being a sparkling pond and two sets of all-too-small footprints in the snow.

****[/]{END OF INTERLUDE}[\\]** **


	19. Feathered Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The duo meet Lady Seres, who knows more than she's willing to tell.

I’m shaken awake the next morning by Zelda, her blue eyes already sharp and alert, the sun barely peeking over the horizon. The room isn’t properly illuminated yet- only the faintest tinges of lavender light are fighting off the greys and blacks of my surroundings, and the effect is disorienting.

“Come on,” Zelda hisses, and I blink at her and try to say _what_ but I’m pretty sure it comes out as a distorted, unintelligible noise instead. She gets the gist, though. “I want to speak to Seres, and I want to do it without anyone else around. Now’s the best time,”

I slowly drag myself into a seated position, suppressing my grumbling, and wipe the grit from my eyes. Navi is roused from where she slept in a corner of the mattress, curled under someone’s abandoned shirt, and emerges just long enough to yawn before zipping back into Zelda’s hood.

“Do you even know where she is?” I ask blearily, wondering how the hell she’s awake so early, given how badly we’ve both been sleeping for the last few days. Zelda nods crisply, pulling on her boots. I follow her example.

“Morgan said she spends her days up in the tower. There’s only one tower on this castle, not like the one in Castle Town. I think I can find my way there, if this building is organised with any logic,”

She stands and tiptoes out of the room, dancing between abandoned sandals and items of clothing. A few people near the window stir slightly as we briefly block what little light is entering the room, but somehow we get to the door without waking anyone. Zelda immediately makes for the stairs that lead to the library, and I follow her. The double doors are closed but not locked, and Zelda pushes them open slowly.

“Please don’t creak,” she whispers at them, as if that will help at all. They don’t creak anyway, but I’m not dumb enough to think her request was actually acknowledged by a door. The library is almost deserted, the only occupant being a man in a ratty tunic asleep in one of the chairs- I’m assuming he’s supposed to be on this ‘night shift’ Morgan mentioned. He doesn’t wake as we loop around a few shelves and locate another set of stairs leading to the third floor. The third floor is deserted. “Tower was on the left side of the building, wasn’t it?” she asks.

“I think so,” I reply, mentally checking over my image of the outside of the building. Zelda nods and we cross the floor in silence for a while. “What are these buildings made of?” I ask finally. Zelda blinks.

“Bricks,” she says. “Hewn from stone. We stack them up and use mortar to keep them together,”

“It’s some incredible craftsmanship, that’s for sure,” I say appreciatively, reaching out to brush the wall beside me.

“We should try something like this in the village,” Navi says. “If we build the new houses from stone, they won’t burn again,”

I swallow and for a moment there’s a stiff silence.

“Where do you get the stone from?” I ask, breaking the silence a second time. Zelda shrugs.

“Mostly it’s sourced in Eldin Province, although in times of peace some stonemasons will buy higher-quality stone from Ikana,”

“And we’re at war with Ikana, right?”

Zelda sniggers.

“War is a strong word,” she says. “To be honest, it’s dying down. More of a skirmish now. It’s been slowing down since I was six,”

Navi frowns.

“What are they even fighting over? The Deku Tree said it was the triforce, but if they haven’t actually managed to invade Hyrule, what have they been doing?”

Zelda shrugs. “Mostly fighting our armies at the Ikana River. They took Ordona Province at one stage, which was bad, but we managed to drive them out again.”

“What’s so special about Ordona Province?” Navi asks. Zelda sighs.

“I need a map for this. Uh, so, Ikana is located in the southern area of the land, right? We’re their only neighbours. Their outer borders are all ocean, but their north border is along Ordona Province. There’s a mountain range that splits off a good portion of that part of the land, so the border follows those mountains then drops to meet the great river. Anything north of the mountains is Hyrule; anything north of the river is Hyrule. But Ikana, historically, was a bit dirty that they didn’t get the fertile lands of Ordona Province.”

“Why would they expect to get Ordona Province?” I ask. “Hyrule is Hyrule, right?”

Zelda runs a hand through her hair, checking a room for a staircase.

“If you had the border along the mountains, and then drew a line across a map from the edge of the mountains to Demise’s Fang, a good deal of Ordona Province would fall inside of Ikana’s territory. When the borders were first negotiated, Ikana argued that the border shouldn’t drop to meet the river, but it was eventually decided that it was better to have a border with a physical landmark.”

“So...okay. I think I’ve got it,” I nod slowly. “What happens when they lose this war?”

“To be honest?” Zelda says, “everything will probably just go back to normal. I mean, they tried to invade during the civil war, but that turned out to be a good thing for Hyrule because pretty much all the warring factions decided they didn’t want Ikana taking any of ‘their’ land. Most of the factions banded together to drive Ikana out again and basically told them that they wouldn’t fight further if Ikana stayed in their own borders.”

“But they broke that agreement,” Navi points out as Zelda checks another room. “Surely the king and queen won’t just allow them to go back into Ikana so they can try a third time,”

“No,” Zelda agrees. “They’ve already discussed it, actually. They’re going to make King Igos sign a treaty to stay out of Hyrule, or else Hyrule will invade _them_. And _win,_ because our army is a hell of a lot stronger than theirs,”

“Why would they even try invading if our army is better?” I ask. “That’s dumb,”

“I dunno,” Zelda shrugs. “They probably thought that if they quietly took over Ordona Province that we wouldn’t notice due to the distance between Ordona and Castle Town. But when the supply of produce dried up we realised something was wrong.”

“How long did it take?” I frown.

“Like, a month,” Zelda snorts, then cheers quietly as she finally finds the room that opens onto a staircase. She gives me a vague shushing motion then starts ascending the circular set of stairs. The door at the top is locked. “Shoot,” she mutters. “Is she even in here?”

I turn my head and put my ear up to the door.

“Can you hear anything?” Zelda asks me, wide eyed. I frown.

“A girl’s voice…”

“Is it Seres?” she says excitedly.

“No. It’s you. Shut up,”

Abashed, she shuts up.

I press my ear harder to the door, holding my breath. A slightly raspy voice is speaking inside the room.

“-mean, I’m a little worried that he’s spending so much time around these kids, but I suppose they’re good for him, in a way. With all he’s been through, he deserves some friends,”

“Quite right,” says a second voice, much older-sounding. Well, if the Deku Tree’s voice is anything to go by. “I’d expect no less. As long as they’re good to him, there’s nothing to worry about.”

A brief silence, then the second voice laughs. “Oh, how adorable. You’re upset he’s not spending time with you!”

“No!” protests the first, then coughs. “I’m not upset! He can spend time with whoever he likes!”

The older voice- Seres, hopefully- laughs again. “Ah, I know you. Why not just go live in the village with him?”

“I can’t,” says the younger sullenly. “Besides, last time I went to see him, his friends dunked me in the river,”

Their voice is so petulant I can’t help but huff a slight laugh. The room immediately stills, then the first voice suddenly starts laughing.

“What is it?” the older asks. The younger is still giggling.

“Should have guessed,” they snigger. “Oh, the irony. You have company, Seres.”

A moment later, the door flies open to reveal one rather astounded-looking woman with vibrant green hair. Zelda and I simultaneously put on our best innocent face.

“Uh...hi?” I offer.

The woman just blinks.

**[/]{INTERLUDE- THE GRAVE ROBBER}[\\]**

The sun rose and the grave robber looked at the bird-child she saved and wondered what she’d done.

Binding the broken wing had turned out to be a daunting task. She couldn’t cast it like a human arm, because his feathers were in the way. She couldn’t wrap it shut like a bird wing, because she couldn’t tie his wing in full flexion up at the shoulder. In the end, she had improvised, stealing a basin of plaster from the least reputable healer’s in town and using the blades of her knives to stop the plaster drying in his feathers. The cast had a long gap at the bottom to allow the brown and white plumage free, and a few old belts looped around his wrist to hold it up over his shoulder. She had almost clipped the feathers in a fit of frustration, given that he wouldn’t be flying on that wing anytime soon, but then she had remembered that time she accidentally killed a Takkuri by cutting a blood feather. She wasn’t sure if this bird-child- _Quill_ \- had blood feathers, but she wasn’t taking that risk.

He awoke slowly, squinting his dark red eyes- too dark for a Sheikah- against the sun that was lancing into the alleyway. He slowly focused on her, and she offered a little wave.

“Hey, kid,” she said, and he swallowed.

“Thank you for saving me,” he said, his beak twisting the words into a definitely foreign accent.

“I expect recompense,” she warned, only half joking. Possibly less than half. “How’s the wing?”

He looked at it, feathers ruffling. “Still sore,” he said. “I’m sorry, I’ve never flown like that before and I panicked and landed badly,”

“I guessed that much,” she said dryly, “by the way you snapped it like a merrythought.”

Then she stopped.

“Do you have a merrythought?” she asked. He stared.

“A what?”

She waved a hand, searching for the right term, then snapped her fingers.

“A wishbone. That’s what they’re calling it now. Do you have a wishbone?”

He looked bewildered.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know what a wishbone or a merrythought is,” he said apologetically.

“It’s...it’s that...never mind,” she said, after some vague gestures at her own breastbone. “I’ll ask again later when I know what it’s actually called. Anyway, you hungry?”

“Yes,” said the boy meekly, sitting up and straightening his dark tunic. She eyed it enviously. Between his two layers and his feathers, he had probably spent the night a lot warmer than her.

“Let’s go find someone to beg food out of, then,” she said. He looked at her strangely.

“Won’t the flightless people attack me?” he asked. “Those ones last night did,”

She waved a hand. “Nah. We can just tell them you want to be a bird. You’re young enough they’ll laugh it off,”

He hesitated. “I...I do not particularly want to take that risk,”

She rolled her eyes, then shrugged off her cloak and handed it to him. “Tuck those feathers of yours under here, then. We’ll disguise you a little,”

It was long enough to cover his taloned feet, which was a blessing. She looked at his beak for a while, wondering how she would hide that. Finally, she just opened her bag and managed to find a bit of twine. “You’re not gonna like this, but open up,”

He paused, then opened his beak. She deftly slid the twine in, like the bit of a horse, then tied it in a loose bow at the back of his head. “There. Now it’s a mask. Don’t move your beak and they’ll never know any better,”

He stared at her dolefully and, if she was right, somewhat annoyed at her choice of disguise. She shrugged.

“Hey. Deal with it,” she said, packing up the fur throw she had let him use to sleep on. She strode out of the alleyway. “You allergic to anything?”

“No,” he said, the word even more garbled by the string in his mouth.

“Good,” she said, looking about for a bakery. Bakeries were often easier to steal from, but she wasn’t sure how to do it with a kid in tow. She wasn’t leaving him alone, though. She didn’t trust him not to do a runner. “Follow me,”

She managed to find a bakery by memory, and with a mournful look at all the people present, removed a few rupees from her bag. It looked like she’d have to actually pay this time. As she walked towards the loaves of bread, the baker eyed Quill curiously.

“I like your mask, son,” he said eventually, and Quill dutifully kept his beak dead still. The grave robber smiled and ruffled his hair- the almost offended look on Quill’s face was worth it.

“Ah, he loves birds,” she said, and the baker seemed to appraise her dark skin as well as Quill’s.

“He your son?”

“Yes,” she lied easily, choosing a loaf of bread.

“Ten rupees,” the man said, and she dropped the money on the counter. He nodded. “Have a lovely day, ma’am,”

“You too,” she said, leaving the bakery with Quill in tow. She found a suitable place to sit and dug in her bag, eventually finding an almost-empty jar of a fruit jam. She tore the loaf open and almost went for her knife before remembering it was still caked in plaster, so she instead used her finger to spread the remaining jam over the loaf before tearing it in half and handing one to Quill. He stared at it for a moment, appraising it, and the grave robber reached over and yanked the thread to undo the bow. He gratefully spat out the twine, opened his beak, and tore off a chunk of the bread, swallowing it whole.

She made a mental note to put any future jam on the outside of the bread if he wasn’t going to chew it. She made short work of her own bread, watching interestedly at the way he seemed to clamp the bread in his beak and then yank sharply downwards to tear it off. _It’s not a rat, kid. Don’t have to use so much force._

When they were done, she leaned back.

“I’ve decided what I want in return for saving you,” she said arbitrarily, and the kid looked at her with a slight tinge of fear.

“What is it?” he asked, and she offered a lazy grin.

“See that castle?”

“Yes,”

“You’re going to help me break into it.”

**[/]{END OF INTERLUDE}[\\]**

“I know what you’re here for,” Seres says, gesturing for us to sit down. We oblige.

“You do?” I ask. She nods, green hair bobbing in a way so reminiscent of Saria that my throat clogs up for a moment or two.

“I do,” she says, “and I’m going to tell you your efforts are better spent elsewhere.”

There’s no sign of the other half of the conversation I overheard, which is disconcerting. For a fleeting moment I wonder if they’re hiding under the bed, then banish the thought. They clearly knew we were here, and that we knew _they_ were here, so there would be no point in hiding. But the only way out would have been through the window.

“What do you mean, spent elsewhere?” Zelda asks incredulously. “You said you know what we’re here for, but then you say that?”

“Going after the harp won’t help you,” Seres says, and my stomach drops. How did she know about the harp? “The one who took it will be expecting that. There is every likelihood that they have put precautions in place. It is much better to try and obtain the harp in a roundabout way rather than pursuing the Lizalfos,”

I swallow a few times.

“How do you know this?” I ask, and Seres gives me a long, slow look.

“I know things,” she says eventually. “In any case, I’m afraid that I will be of little use in finding the Spiritual Stones. I only know the location of two of the stones,”

“We only have one,” Zelda counters. “We have the Stone of Forest. What’s the other one?”

“As far as I know, the Stone of Water is in possession of the Zora princess, who is currently en route to Lon Lon,”

Zelda pauses. “Lon Lon? What’s she doing so far from the Zoran mountains?” she asks in surprise. Seres smiles briefly.

“That, I am uncertain of. Likely something to do with diplomacy; Lon Lon has been attempting to begin trade in red ice,”

“Ugh, no more diplomacy,” Navi mutters from Zelda’s hood, and Seres evidently hears her because she laughs again.

“Very well. I won’t bore you with the details,” she says, and Navi sticks her head out of the hood. “At any rate, I believe your primary goal should be obtaining the other two stones,”

I look at Seres for a while.

“Miss,” I ask eventually, “Do you know if the Kokiri are okay?”

She gives me a pitying look.

“Okay? Perhaps not. Managing? I suppose. From what I hear, those who survived have banded together most admirably to attempt to repair things,”

“Do you know who made it?” Navi asks immediately. “Did Saria make it?”

Seres frowns. “I do not know individual Kokiri, I’m sorry. Who is Saria?”

“My friend,” I say quietly. “You remind me of her, a little. She has green hair, like you,”

Seres frowns further but does not comment.

“How do you know all this?” Zelda asks. “I don’t understand, we only found the first stone yesterday,”

“Ears everywhere, mouths nowhere,” Seres quips. “Quite a few of the lovely people downstairs repay me by telling me what they hear. I was told that there were two battered children rejoicing over finding a green stone. In context, I understood that to mean that you had already located the first stone,”

“What context?” Zelda says, sounding frustrated. “I don’t get it!”

Seres looks at her. “You will, eventually. I have many people tell me many things, and if you take each of the tidbits you’re offered you might be able to make some of them into one large picture that none of the people even guessed was possible.”

“Who told you about the forest?” I ask. She nods.

“Someone who I think you may want to speak to,” she says. “If you would give me a moment,”

She crosses to a table and picks up a recorder, lifting it to her lips, and plays a quick, lilting tune. She lowers the instrument and waits. There is a long silence.

“Uh, Lady Seres,” Zelda begins, but falls silent at the flick of Seres’ hand. After a long minute, the purpose of the song becomes clear. She points out the window and I look out just in time to see a shape drop out of the clouds, swooping into a steep arc towards the window. As it comes closer I recognise it as an owl, and it glides straight towards us and alights on the windowsill. Zelda stares in disbelief, but all I can think is that this looks an awful lot like the owl we all thought lived in the Deku Tree.

“Are...are you Kaepora Gaebora?” Zelda asks, sounding rather breathy. The owl inclines his head in a decidedly human way,  his yellow eyes glimmering with an intelligence that is far broader than any simple bird.

“I am,” he says. “Link, I can assure you, I have seen your friend Saria, and she is fine,”

“Oh, you found them, then,” Seres says. “Excellent,”

“Indeed,” Kaepora says. “She was actually amongst the least injured of the Kokiri. They have located all of the injured and many of them have benefitted from the healing powers of Kiri,”

Something in me that I didn’t even know was knotted unties itself and floats away, a profound relief sweeping through me.

“Thank you,” I whisper, and the owl nods again and turns to Zelda.

“Impa has not yet been found, but your parents have been informed of what transpired. I told them myself several months ago.”

Zelda almost glares.

“Did they have anything to tell me?”

“Their messages were mainly instructions to return to Castle Town, which I decided was not in anyone’s best interests,” he says diplomatically. “My apologies for not conveying their message, but it would not have been beneficial,”

Zelda’s still glaring, and the owl looks back at Seres.

“I did as you asked and kept an eye out for indications of the Spiritual Stones,” he says, “and it appears that the Stone of Fire has been returned to its rightful place in Death Mountain, under the guard of the Goron patriarch.”

“Lon Lon and Death Mountain?” Zelda asks. “That’s where we’ll find them?”

“Only Lon Lon if you hurry,” Kaepora says, ruffling his wings. “The Zoran delegation will arrive in Lon Lon in about three days,”

Zelda stares.

“No way can we cover that much ground in that short a time!” she says. “Wouldn’t it be better to travel to the Zoran mountains and wait for the princess to return?”

“If you want to waste precious time,” Seres says. Kaepora has a glint in his eye.

“I am aware you cannot cross that much ground on foot,” he says, a tone of triumph in his voice. “I have located someone who may be of great help in that regard,”

Seres’ eyes light up. “You found him?”

“Found who?” Navi asks.

Kaepora ignores both of them, staring out the window. A moment later I hear a distant shriek from the marketplace, and a moment after _that_ I see the cause. And a part of me lurches with joy at the sight even though it is completely alien, something I have never seen and something I have seen every day of my life at the same time.

A great red bird swoops towards us and lands on the roof of the castle. He- _he?_ \- cranes a long neck to stare in the window, and I find myself stepping forward to caress the beak of this _beautiful_ creature as it caws in triumph.

“Link,” says Kaepora, “I would like to re-introduce your trusted steed Kaion. Zelda, you will know him from your lessons by another name.”

Zelda stares in awe as I lean my forehead against the broad beak, unable to put a name to the sweeping feeling of _right_ in my gut, this rush of love for something I’ve never seen before, and the way he looks back at me shows that he feels exactly the same. Zelda takes a shaky breath.

“The crimson loftwing.”


	20. The Ones That Falter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With their new companion at his side, Link says his goodbyes to the Library.

Some of his feathers are broken. Some of his feathers are matted together in strange ways. The ones under his chin are soft, small and downy, too tiny to break, too tiny to clump together. And his  _ eyes. _ So much raw emotion in them, too much for a bird, too much for  _ anyone _ , and I just wrap my arms around his neck. He coos softly, his huge head drooping down to rest on my shoulder, and I don’t even realise Zelda’s approached until he does, flinching backwards slightly as she puts her hand on his beak.

“Kaion, huh?” she asks softly. “I didn’t even know you were still alive. How long do Loftwings live, Kaepora?”

Kaepora ends up fluttering off the windowsill and onto a stand, shoved off the ledge by the red bird who seems to be doing his damndest to get in through the window.

“As long as their Hylian half,” the owl replies. “So I suppose that, since the spirit of the Hero is constantly cycling around, Kaion’s bondmate never really died- and therefore nor did Kaion.”

I stifle a giggle as Kaion makes an unhappy noise and squirms, getting one taloned foot on the windowsill and attempting to use it as leverage.

“Don’t do that,” Navi tells the bird. “You won’t be able to get out again,”

The look he gives her is so perfectly identical to one I’ve given her so many times before that it makes me laugh as I finally release his squirming neck. 

“Where have you been, huh?” I ask Kaion quietly. “You been waiting for me?”

He caws softly, nudging me, and there’s no doubt in my mind- hero or not, this bird likes me. It’s...offputting.

“This is unfair,” Navi tells him informatively. “You know how long it took  _ me _ to try and get a hug out of Link?”

“That’s because you’re tiny and I wasn’t sure how to hug you without killing you,” I remind her. She huffs.

“Excuses, excuses,” she says.

Finally, Seres clears her throat and we turn back to her.

“I know this is probably very emotional for you, Link, but I’m afraid I’m going to have to interrupt,” she says. 

“Can I just ask something first?” I begin slowly, and Seres inclines her head in a quick movement I take as assent. “Why...why can I  _ tell _ things without any memory of them? Why do I  _ know _ Kaion even though I’ve never even heard of him until now?”

Kaion makes a displeased noise.

“Sorry, buddy,” I snort. “But, yeah. Why is that?”

“To be honest? We don’t know,” Kaepora says, sounding guilty. 

“It’s probably something to do with the whole  _ reincarnation _ thing,” Zelda offers. “I mean, Impa and I took to eachother like Zora to water even though we met when I was only a few hours old. I don’t remember meeting her, but supposedly we clicked right away. And…” she looks a little uncomfortable, “it’s probably why you were so willing to accept me into the Kokiri village when everyone else wasn’t.”

“Given I met the previous Sheikah to bear the soul and name of Impa, I’m not surprised you get along,” Kaepora says gently. “She was a fierce friend and protector of your grandmother,”

Navi finally sighs.

“Okay, I’m going to address the Moblin in the room- how can you talk?” she says in that fast way of hers, the one she uses when she doesn’t want to be the one saying something. “You’re an owl,”

Seres laughs slightly. 

“Ah, but Kaepora Gaebora is not just an owl,” she says.

“Nor is that my real name,” the owl says. “My dear Navi, you have just found out that your charge is a legendary hero reincarnated. Is a talking owl really what you should be concerned about?”

The fairy flushes navy.

“Sorry,” she says, and Kaepora preens a wing. 

“No need to apologise,” he says, and then the door slams open.

“Seres!” Morgan blurts, his eyes wild behind his glasses, “those kids you asked me to- oh,”

He cuts off as he spots us, and I give a little wave. Zelda blinks.

“You didn’t believe me at all, did you,” she says, sounding disappointed. Morgan raises an eyebrow, a hint of a smile around his lips.

“Was that really the best story you could come up with?” he asks her. “Your parents gave you those names and just happened to dress Link like that? It didn’t help that I could see your lovely fairy friend helping Link read,”

Navi scowls.

“You mean I didn’t have to suffocate under that shirt all night?” she complains, and Kaion tactfully chooses that moment to caw as if laughing at her. Her navy hue darkens. “You shut your face, bird!”

Morgan mustn’t have noticed Kaion at first-  _ how did he miss him? _ \- and his jaw drops.

“Oh, sweet Nayru,” he says reverently. “Is that...is that…”

Seres fixes him with a disapproving look.

“Morgan, there are seven people in this room. Four of those are legendary figures and one is a fairy. Please try to contain yourself,”

He bites his lip, looking enraptured. 

“I’m sorry,” he says, sounding flustered, “I just...wow. You guys are literally legends,”

“Please don’t,” I ask him pleadingly. I mean, it’s not like the attention isn’t a  _ very _ welcome change, but...on the heels of so much painful change, I don’t think I can handle being treated like...well, treated like a hero. He leans back on his heels, pushing his glasses back up his nose.

“Oh. Sorry. I just...ugh. Sorry,” he says.

“Stop apologising,” Navi says with a slight laugh. “You’re repeating yourself,”

“Can I just… Larine downstairs has a pictograph box she let me use once. Can I just go grab that? I feel like sometime in the future there are going to be history books that will want this moment preserved,”

Kaepora hoots a soft laugh.

“Go ahead,” he says, mirth in his amber eyes, and Morgan vanishes back down the steps.

“What’s a pictograph box?” I ask, starting to be bothered by all the fancy inventions in Hyrule that I don’t know about.

“It’s a device that looks at whatever it’s pointed at and uses the light it sees to make a picture. So, if I pointed a pictograph box at you and pressed the button, it would make a picture of you,”

I have no words for a good ten seconds.

“That’s awesome,” Navi breathes. “Wow,”

“We don’t have anything like that in the woods,” I say, then wince internally at the obvious statement.

“There are a lot of things you don’t have in the woods,” Kaepora says darkly. “The only reason you had maps in your shop is because I brought them there. It wouldn’t do for the Kokiri to have no idea where they were in relation to the rest of Hyrule. And several of your leather and metal items were brought by me as well.”

“Why, though?” Navi wonders. “Why would you bring us belts and boots and maps and stuff? We did well enough without it, right?”

Kaepora hesitates.

“When I look at the Kokiri, I see children. And before I started bringing commodities to the woods, I noticed that you were somewhat...lacking, if I am honest. I felt guilty and began bringing first books and scrolls, and then basic necessities. Footwear, belts, furs. I tried bringing you weapons at one stage, but the Great Trees put a stop to it. I also tried bringing you meat, but it’s been centuries since Kokiri ate meat. You are a surprisingly peaceful race. I would dare say that, when you are not catering to your childish nature, you are one of the most spiritually even peoples in Hyrule,”

A stab of guilt hits me as I think of all the times I’ve messed up that ‘spiritual evenness’. 

“You probably shouldn’t say ‘you’,” I murmur. “I’m not a Kokiri,”

“I know,” Kaepora says. Navi and I blink.

“How did you know?” Zelda asks. 

“Your blood, Link,” the owl says curtly. “Kokiri rarely get injured in the woods, but surely you’ve noticed?”

“...No?” I say, wondering what I’ve failed to notice.

“Kokiri have green blood,” Kaepora informs us. “You don’t.”

Another stupid, stupid thing I’ve missed. Stupid, stupid. But how did  _ they _ never notice either? Mido’s seen enough of my blood to be able to tell it’s red, not green. But Kiri and Saria have seen me beat up enough to notice it, and they never seemed concerned. 

“I suspect the reason it went unnoticed is because the Great Deku Tree claimed that you were a different type of Kokiri,” the owl hoots.

“Why is their blood green?” Zelda asks, looking bewildered. Kaion gurgles, as if irritated that I’m not paying enough attention to him, and I scratch at his feathers. 

“Probably magic,” Seres snorts.

“I mean, Deku Scrubs and Skull Kids bleed green as well,” Navi points out. “It’s probably a forest thing. Part of the forest magic?”

I look at her with apprehension.

“Why didn’t  _ you _ notice that?” I ask her. “You were up to your shoulders in it when the Gohma bit me,”

She frowns. “To be honest, it doesn’t really matter to me what colour your blood is. I was too busy freaking out that you were bleeding and I didn’t know how much blood you could lose before bad things happened. Fairies don’t have blood, remember? I had no frame of reference,”

“Green blood is such a strange trait, though,” Zelda mutters. “It makes no sense,”

“The Kokiri don’t make sense in general,” Seres reminds her. “Many scholars have tried to understand how they can possibly remain eternally young, although the only person who has ever gone far enough into the woods to actually encounter the Kokiri themselves and return alive is Kaepora here,”

“As an owl, I can stave off the effects of the forest magic, whereas almost no other species born outside the forest can on their own,” the bird explains. “I was rather startled the first time I saw a Kokiri bleed and noticed that it was green.”

“That’s just creepy,” Zelda says. “I can’t imagine having green blood, it just doesn’t seem natural,”

Seres shrugs. “Maybe it tickled Farore’s fancy. Who knows?”

Morgan re-enters the room with a square device in his hands.

“Do I take it now?” he asks, and Seres rolls her eyes. 

“Morgan, really. It’s a pictograph. Just take it,”

I peer at the object as he pushes a button; it clicks loudly and then...nothing.

“Thank you,” he says, putting the box on a table to the side. “So...the legendary hero, huh?”

I offer a toothy grin that probably looks just as strained as it feels. “Swap you?”

He laughs. “How about no,” he responds immediately. “All yours,”

“Back on topic,” Kaepora begins, “you two aren’t prepared for any sort of journey. You spent two days without food, for goodness’ sakes,”

“I applaud you for that, by the way,” Seres cuts in. “Wouldn’t have thought you’d be able to handle it. Especially you, Zelda,”

I shrug. “Kokiri get by on less food in winter anyway,”

“ _ As I was saying, _ ” the owl hoots irritably, “we’ve decided to give you some supplies and the like. To keep you going,”

Seres turns around and lifts a box off of a shelf, putting it down on the desk. Kaion appears interested in it, craning his long neck into the room and putting some good effort into trying to knock it off the desk. Seres moves it out of his reach slightly irritably.

“I know you have those excellent pouches of yours,” she says, “and I’m sure these will fit in them,”

Zelda curiously opens the box and Morgan taps me on the shoulder.

“Do you think he would, you know,” he says softly, with a meaningful look at Kaion. I raise my hands.

“Technically I just met him. Try and see what happens,”

He steps closer to Kaion and gingerly scratches him under the beak; the pleased noise the bird makes seems to relax Morgan, who laughs softly.

“Wow. I can’t believe this is actually the crimson loftwing. You realise the official flag of Hyrule was modeled after him?”

“No,” I say, impressed. “What’s it look like?”

“You’ll see it soon enough,” he says. “It’s basically a bird. It’s carved on the outside of this building,”

“Oh my,” Zelda says in disbelief, and I turn back to her, loath to move away from the giant red bird whose head keeps nudging me as if to make sure I’m still there. Zelda’s looking at Seres with shock on her face. “I… I can’t possibly accept this from you, Lady Seres,”

“Nonsense,” Seres says dismissively. “Go ahead. You need it more than I do anyway,”

Curiosity piqued, I move forward to see what’s in the box. Kaion is unimpressed that I’m no longer touching him, and starts to scratch at the roof. A sound like breaking pottery accompanies the scratching claws.

“H-hey, don’t do that!” Navi says hurriedly, trying to reassure the bird; she flies in close, and he goes crosseyed to look at her. While he’s calmed, I look inside the box Seres has offered. A wallet that looks stuffed with rupees, and an assortment of sacks full of what turns out to be different types of food- bread, vegetables, fruits, cheese, and a dark reddish-brown food I can only assume is meat. Yeah, that’s all Zelda’s. But the rest...well, there’s enough there to last a while.

“We gathered the necessities,” Seres says. “This should last you two weeks, if you’re sparing with it. We didn’t want to prepare too much as it would spoil- preservation only goes so far. I’d recommend eating the fruits first,”

“Thank you,” Zelda says quietly, her fingers twitching towards the bags. 

“Well, you are the future Queen,” Seres says. “It’s only right that we should do our best to keep you alive,”

“I...I’ll find some way to make this up to you,” Zelda murmurs, a raw honesty in her voice, evidently blindsided by the charity. “Thank you so much,”

“I-same here,” I say, staring at the food. I’m guessing it looks like a lot more than it is, but it’s still a lot more than we’ve had for the last two days.

Seres’ mouth twitches.

“I know you will,” she says. “Now, you’d best get going. You too, Morgan. Where did you leave Beatrice?”

“Fallon’s got her,” he says. “She was still sleeping when I left,”

He takes the hint, though, and scurries off downstairs. 

“Where is Morgan’s wife?” Zelda asks abruptly, looking at Seres. “Why isn’t she here helping him look after Beatrice?”

The green-haired woman hesitates.

“He hasn’t told me much- I’ve pieced together parts of the story from his rants when he’s had a glass or two of bourbon. She’s Gerudo, and from what I can tell, his parents didn’t approve of him marrying interspecies, and the fact that he fathered a Gerudo child disgusted them. It...got nasty, and Morgan and Niska ended up both living in the Gerudo community in the Tarm Ruins. Thing is, though, a few years ago Niska was invited to study sorcery under Sahasrahla-”

“ _ Sahasrahla? _ Wow,” Zelda says in awe. Seres shrugs.

“She’s a decent sorcerer, although she’s not very versatile. I’ve only met her a few times. Anyway, Morgan lived in Castle Town with her but they decided it wasn’t a good environment for Beatrice. Kaepora and I...well, we heard about them through the grapevine maybe seven years ago, and I offered him a job and a home here. It’s been rough on them, being separated, but he says he didn’t want to raise Beatrice in a town where her skin and hair were something to be afraid of,”

There’s a long pause.

“That’s...depressing,” Navi says after a while, quiet. “Why would people be afraid of her for having dark skin?”

“Niska herself is often faced with racial slurs and insults, but she’s old enough to brush them off. It’s a pretty old line of thought- they’re different and so they’re hated. It’s mostly because of the civil war though. Gerudo are still thought of as the savage invaders,”

“What a world, huh,” Navi murmurs, and I silently rub Kaion’s beak. Zelda hesitates, lost in thought.

“Anyway,” Seres says, and she and Kaepora look us dead in the eye. “You’d best be getting ready to go,”

“Take care of yourselves,” the owl says solemnly. “The path you’ve set out on is not going to be easy. By virtue of your names and souls, it was never going to be easy. Be careful,”

“And promise me you won’t give up,” Seres says suddenly. “No matter what happens. I can promise you will come out on top. You always do. The Ancient Hero and Princess of Destiny always suffer loss- but they always fight through it too. Promise me you won’t let it beat you, no matter how bad it looks,”

There’s a long silence.

“You know I can’t promise that,” I say jerkily, the words emerging from a throat that feels too small for the words. “But...I’ll try,”

Seres’ blue eyes soften.

“I know that, too.”

I peer into the room where we spent the night, where Morgan is sitting on his bed, his feet tucked up and his daughter curled into his chest. One of the other two occupants of the room are gone, the other deeply asleep near the door. I tiptoe in and sit gently beside Morgan, looking at the toddler girl snuggled against him. It’s hard to imagine anything more natural and beautiful than this sight- and a part of me suddenly pangs for the faceless image of my mother Naraku, wondering if this was once me. I look around the room. The window beside us has its curtains drawn, and on the wall beside Morgan’s bed is a flaking painting, depicting a tough-looking, dark-haired man with a whiskery smile, a short but thin woman with flowing brown hair and silver-grey eyes, and a younger Morgan. His face is smoother, without any of the hair he seems to be growing there, and he isn’t wearing glasses. I immediately wonder why he needs them- and why he keeps this painting visible if his parents were so disgusted in him just because he married someone who wasn’t Hylian. I don’t claim to get this whole marriage thing, but it seems to me like it wasn’t their choice.

Morgan catches me looking at the painting.

“My parents and I,” he says stiffly. “We…we’re not on speaking terms.”

My heart clenches with empathy for this lost-looking young man. I debate telling him what Seres told us. Instead, I gently hug him and his daughter, who mumbles softly. Morgan smiles wryly, pushing his glasses back up his nose with a free hand.

“Let me guess; Seres told you about my family,”

I don’t insult his intelligence by denying it. He sighs.

“So loose-tongued, she is,” he says, a mixture of dismay and acceptance in his voice. “She really had no right to tell you,”

“I’m sorry,” I say meekly. Morgan sighs.

“I couldn’t say I didn’t regret the whole affair,” he admits. “But Bee and Niska are worth every bit,”

He nods his head to the wall behind us, and I turn to see another painting- in much better condition, clearly cared for. Morgan, complete with glasses, beside a woman I assume is his wife. She has a fine-boned, angular face, her skin a rich brown. Her eyes are a stunning green, and she has long yellowish hair tied in two tails on either side of her head. She balances a baby Beatrice on her hip.

“That’s Niska, my wife.”

“I figured,” I grin at him, dropping the smile as I realise he isn’t returning it.

Okay. Uh, where do I go from here?

“Morgan,” I say carefully. “I wanted to give you something.”

He raises an eyebrow, and I dig into my pouch and pull out the seed that the Great Deku Tree gave me before the competition to reach his branches.

“You probably already know what this is, right?”

“Deku seed,” he answers immediately, looking bemused.

I nod. “I was given this by the Great Deku Tree, and I was supposed to break it if I needed help during a competition I was in. I got Zelda, Kaepora and Lady Seres to do some of their hoodoo on it. If…if you ever need my help, no matter when, all you have to do is crush the seed, and I’ll be able to hear you through this,”

I hold up my ocarina. “It’ll play a note by itself when you crush the seed, and if I play the same note back it’ll bring me to you,”

I realise I probably wouldn’t be able to help much as I am, but with all this Hero bull everyone’s heaping on me…it has to be worth something, right?

Morgan takes the seed, staring at it.

“Thank you,” he says, something odd in his voice. “Really…thank you,”

He slips the seed into the pocket of his slightly-too-small coat, and turns to me.

“It’s no big deal,” I answer, and he smiles gratefully.

“Maybe to you,” he says warmly. “But I doubt any other parent can promise their child that the Hero of Hyrule himself will come to save her if she’s in danger,”

I laugh. “Just make sure she doesn’t break it to show off to her friends,”

There’s another tap on the door, and Zelda sticks her head inside.

“Link? We were going to leave now…”

Morgan looks at her, and then stands, looping his arms under Beatrice to support her.

“I…I realise you’ve done more than enough for me,” he says hesitantly, “but could I ask one more favour, your highness? And you too, Link?”

“What can we do?” asks Zelda immediately. “If it’s within my current power, I’ll do it,”

He brushes a strand of yellowish hair from his daughter’s face.

“Could you…could you possibly give my daughter your blessing?” he stammers. “I understand that you usually don’t do blessings until you are queen, your highness…but I doubt an opportunity like this will come around again,”

“You want  _ me  _ to pray for your child?” I ask quizzically. “The goddesses hate me. They’ll probably hit her with lightning just to piss us off,”

“No they won’t,” sighs Zelda, walking closer. “You are always welcome in Hyrule Castle, Morgan. And please… just call me Zelda.”

Morgan beams and gently scratches his daughter’s hair.

“Hey Bee,” he murmurs. “Someone very special is here to see you!”

Bee mumbles something unintelligible that sounds suspiciously like  _ mama? _

“No,” Morgan laughs lightly. “Even more special! It’s the  _ princess! _ And the hero too!”

Her electric green eyes widen, and she looks around, eyes fixing on Zelda and I. She beams and gurgles something I can’t make out, and Morgan sets her on the bed as she kicks her tiny toes happily. I laugh.

“Aww, hello,” I reach out my arm and hesitate, looking to Morgan, but he nods, so I scratch around her hair. “You are a very special girl, you know?”

She pokes me, and I get the feeling she doesn’t understand a word I’m saying, so I let Zelda take over. She leans forward.

“Hello, Beatrice. I’m Zelda! Not many little girls get to say they’ve met the princess, and you get to,”

The girl gives an adorable toothless smile and I feel my heart melting with the cuteness.

“And you get to have a blessing too! Isn’t that special?”

Beatrice beams even wider-probably just mimicking Zelda’s smile- and Zelda places a hand on her head, pausing, probably trying to remember what she’s supposed to say now. Morgan scrambles for a quill, ink and parchment, balancing them on his knee. 

“Morgan,” she asks, “what’s your family name?”

“Marethyu,” he says. “I still go by my father’s name,”

After a few silent, slightly awkward moments Zelda straightens and looks back at the little girl, clearly remembering the words. Morgan sits ready to write down the blessing.

“May the Goddesses always watch over you, little Beatrice Marethyu, and protect you from all harm. May the wind be always at your back, the sun always warm your face, the rain wash away all sorrow…”

She pauses, thinking.

“May you always find the wisdom to know what is right, the courage to act on it, and the power to withstand those who will cast you down for it. May Hylia shield you from all misfortune under her great wings, and may you always be loved and cared for by those around you.”

Beatrice reaches up and holds Zelda’s wrist, and the blonde smiles. I have never seen her smile so genuinely. She tickles Beatrice’s hand and then steps back, looking to me.

“Uh,” I say, “I don’t have any fancy words for you, Beatrice. But you should know that you need to make the most of the world around you. You never know when it will all fall out from underneath you. Don’t waste your time on stupid things. Choose friends and family over everything else. Some people don’t have a family. You do, and you should love them just as much as they love you, because your family is the most beautiful thing in the world. It doesn’t matter what other people say. They’ll call you names. Ignore them. It makes you special. You’re a very special little girl, and I want you to promise me that you’ll always know it. Your dad loves you very much and I want you to love him back. Love him twice as much. He’s gone through a lot for you and you’ll never even know it. So every time someone pushes you or taunts you or insults your mum and dad…stand up proud, because you should be proud of everything they are and everything  _ you  _ are.  Never forget that.”

A long silence follows my words, punctuated only by the scratching of Morgan’s quill. Finally he sets it down.

“Thank you,” he rasps, and I try not to look at the way his eyes are wet. 

“It was no trouble,” Zelda says gently, packing up the rest of our belongings into her pouch. She’s already grabbed the clothes we left by the fire. “We must be going, but...well, you have that seed. If you need us, call,”

“I will,” he says, and I offer a smile.

“Bye,” I murmur, and we leave the room, weaving our way through the halls until we emerge at the front door. A clatter of pottery follows, and a few clay tiles smash into the ground as Kaion hastily skitters across the roof and glides down to land in front of us, crouching close to the ground. I hesitate, before grasping the worn-looking leather halter around his breast and putting my foot up on his wing joint, hoisting myself up. I offer Zelda a hand, pulling her onto Kaion’s soft, feathery back. When she’s settled, and Navi has nestled into my shirt, Kaion spreads his wings. We’re almost thrown off with the first violent downstroke, and Zelda shrieks- first in panic, then in joy as we clear the top of the castle, the points and shouts far below us. 

And the wind in my hair feels  _ right. _


	21. All the King's Horses

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Saria, Mido and Kiri contend with the howling winter of the world outside their home, while Link finds himself locked in oddly familiar nightmares once again.

**[/]{INTERLUDE-MIDO}[\\]**

Turns out that walking for several hours actually got you pretty far. Mido hadn’t thought it would be that damn easy.

Okay, so maybe easy wasn’t exactly a proper definition. They both had blankets wrapped protectively around them as if they were cloaks, the chilling wind kept firmly on the outside of the grey fabric. There was snow, but it wasn’t the gentle kind they got in the village; less flakes and more blades slicing into their exposed faces and hands. It was a brutal kind of burning but some twisted part of him decided that it was good- since the fire hadn’t gotten him, it was only fair that the snow got its chance. And it was taking that chance with fervour.

Kiri was clearly getting the worst of it, even though she was radiating enough magic to sort-of-not-really alleviate the cold around all three of them. With no blankets to shield her, combined with her tiny size, the fairy was often knocked back a metre or two by a clump of sleet slamming into her. It was enough to already have Mido wanting to turn back; Saria, however, was a girl possessed. She bore the cold with no complaint, her eyes set on the slushy snow in front of her as she plunged her boots into it with every step. Even though Mido could see the snow greedily seeping in between her laces into her boots. It was eerie.

“Are you sure this is the right way?” he rasped at Kiri, his voice somehow making its way out despite his cracked lips. He was already suppressing an urge to drain the water canteen at his belt just to keep his mouth from drying out, but he knew that he shouldn’t drink it all right away, even if he could probably just refill it with the snow surrounding him on every side.

“Yes,” Kiri grunted, her four arms knotted protectively around herself. “I haven’t been out here in...gods, it’s been over thirty years. But I remember the lay of the land well enough, and Zelda would have headed right for the capital in Lochmede. The royal palace is there, and it’s the biggest town in the country,”

Was it weird that he found himself wondering what Neri would say? Was it bad that, even after so long with her, he couldn’t imagine what Neri would say? Did he  _ want _ to know what Neri would say? Maybe. Maybe not. He supposed he’d rather have her actually saying it rather than have to imagine it himself. Was this how Saria was feeling about Link? Was she so desperate to have his voice back that she would defy the only command their father ever gave them? What would she do if she was stuck imagining that voice for the rest of her life?

He banished the thoughts as best he could and started humming instead, the first song that came to mind. He didn’t even know what the song was. Just a song. Something to blot out the dark images percolating in the back of his head and somehow reaching the front of his head too, worming through the wobbly notes to poison anything he thought, dying everything in his mind a dark grey-violet. How long had he been walking? It had been hours, he was sure of that. When the wind abruptly surged and ripped his blanket from between numb fingers, he silently turned around and retrieved it before it was dragged any further away, wrapping it back around himself as if it was really the cold that was bothering him.

“Mido,” Kiri said suddenly, “are you alright?”

He could only guess at the shade of grey his face must have been to warrant Kiri’s concern- Kiri, the fairy who didn’t care about anyone except Saria.

_No,_ he whimpered internally.

“Yes,” he said aloud. Kiri’s doubtful look was knocked off her face by another sudden breeze that yanked her out of the air and into the snow, and she fluttered back up to them with her vibrant pink glow looking distinctly pale. He didn’t like how pale it was.

“Should we rest for a while?” he asked when the ache twisting up through his feet and hips got unbearable, and Saria almost immediately nodded, as if she’d been waiting for someone else to suggest it first. She probably had been.

“Let’s find a tree or something for shelter,” Kiri muttered, looking around, her tiny teeth clicking together. The aura of warmth she had been projecting was starting to falter. 

When they found a tree- a tough-looking old thing with a gnarled trunk, every leaf stripped away by the winter- they coiled together underneath it, warmth suddenly a very precious commodity to them. Mido looked up. Although the sky was filled with the clouds that had been flinging sleet at them as if from a slingshot, he could vaguely see a lighter patch which seemed to be obscuring the sun. From its location in the sky, he guessed it was either a few hours before or after midday- he had no idea which direction was east and which was west, and his sense of time had been screwed the moment the woods went up in flames. If he wasn’t still sure that the sun set at all, he’d have said everything had gone completely haywire.

“Mido,” Saria suddenly broke the silence, her somber voice barely audible over the howling wind. “We’re going to find him, right?”

“I’m probably the most qualified out of anyone to say yes,” he said, surprising himself. “You know him. He’s stubborn as it gets. No way would he let something as stupid as leaving the woods put him down. And nor will we,”

“Okay,” Saria said, as if that statement was absolute confirmation. “I knew that too. I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t thinking it alone,”

He bit his lip so hard he could taste the bitterness of his own blood, staring out at the white expanse that awaited them. Shivering, he dug out another blanket from his pouch and wrapped it around the both of them, Kiri nestling into the spaces between their shoulders, the cold warded off slightly.

“We shouldn’t stay here for too long,” Kiri murmured. “We can rest tonight,”

“I know,” he replied. “But I think my legs might fall off if I walk any more right now.”

“I’m surprised my wings haven’t frozen off already,” the fairy confessed. “This cold is unbearable,”

He examined his fingers, which were flushed a painful green with the temperature. Kiri winced, leaning forward and placing her tiny palm on his hand- the warmth that radiated out from the contact was actually painful, and he bit his lip even harder to stop a whine. Gradually, his fingers faded back to their normal hue, the impending frostbite alleviated for the time being. “Are your toes alright?”

“I don’t want to take off my boots to see,”

Kiri nodded, turning to Saria.

“Let me see your hands, Saria,”

Saria gingerly lifted her hands out of underneath the blanket, her fingers an even darker shade of frostbitten green than Mido’s had been. Kiri sighed and repeated the process, her glow almost leeching of colour as she channeled her magic into warming her charge’s hands. The exhausted fairy flopped onto the blankets when she was done, and Saria reached up, moving her fairy back underneath their protective shield.

“Thank you, Kiri,” she said, and Mido winced.

“Yeah, thanks,” he added- too late. Kiri just nodded.

“How do you think Link and Navi are staying warm?” she asked worriedly. 

“Zelda has her magic,” Kiri said immediately. “It’s not as versatile as mine, but I’d say that she’s putting it to good use keeping them warm. Link turns unattractive colours when he’s cold,”

Mido had to force the image of  _ that one time with blue lips and red blood _ out of his mind, mentally cursing Kiri. Guilt wasn’t something he liked feeling, something he hadn’t really thought necessary. Link was a crap Kokiri. It was proven. Mido had been there when Link had first been brought to the woods, with a  _ grown-up _ soaked in red- red blood, red hair, bloodshot red eyes, barely able to talk in broken Hylian as she practically threw a howling infant at the nearest Kokiri. It had shocked the Kokiri. The red blood had been a startling wake-up call for all of them, and the disappearance of the grown-up even more so. It had been the first Stalfos that the Kokiri were unsettled over having inadvertently created, the first Stalfos Fado hadn’t taunted. The first Stalfos Saria and Miray had ever seen, Saria with a howling infant that was  _ red red red _ in her arms. Red had become a sort of symbol to them. Red brought bad things. When Mido skinned his knee, it was green. When the miniscule Link had done it, it was red. When Mido had first burst Link’s lip, it was still red. It became a sort of ritual. Checking again and again, waiting until Link stopped being  _ red _ and started being  _ green. _ He wore their green clothing and had their green thumb, trying his hardest to be a Kokiri even as he kept bleeding  _ red. _ And yet, somehow, after all the green splattered from the broken bones and hearts and Links, that red was the only thing Mido really wanted to see right now. 

There had never been such a thing as too much green before. There sure as hell was now.

**[/]{END OF INTERLUDE}[\\]**

Flying is simultaneously both much easier and way harder than I thought it would be.

First of all is the fact that I think I might be sitting wrong. Something’s funny about the way Kaion’s back is curving- the way someone might coil up on one part of their body to relieve the strain on another. Second off is the fact that, due to the way he’s curving his back, Zelda keeps sliding slowly backwards on his feathers. Every now and then she locks her arms tighter around my waist and drags herself back up, and I have to cling to the ancient-looking halter to avoid being dragged off with her.

And yet, I keep waiting for some sort of vertigo to hit me. But no. Apparently not. I had always assumed that the sky was beautiful from the ground and that was good enough, but this taste of the clear air and cool winds has me hooked. Stargazing will never be enough again. Oddly enough,  _ Navi _ is the one least suited to our flight, despite being the only one of our trio with wings. She’s clinging to my shirt with a grip that could quite possibly break bone, her eyes squeezed shut. Maybe Kaion’s flying too fast or too high for her comfort. Or maybe she’s being thrown off by the great red feathery wings that keep rocking us gently up and down, a motion that probably feels so much smoother when they’re your own wings. Whatever the case...I love it. The sky is bright and the wind is tugging at my hair and I can forget everything and just look around and know I’m doing something that no Kokiri has ever done, and probably no Hylian either- at least, not for centuries. 

The day passes pretty uneventfully, actually. My legs start to feel a little uncomfortable from the way I’ve braced my foot below Kaion’s wing joints, and my own back starts to ache under the pressure, but that’s nothing. Zelda somehow manages to pass me fruit while we fly for lunch- I follow her lead and just pitch the seeds off Kaion’s back. A part of me wonders if, in several years’ time, people will look at the peach trees in the middle of nowhere and wonder how the hell they got there. Logic says no- in this snowy weather those seeds would never manage to sprout. We cross over an enormous river, Kaion swooping playfully down to brush at the crystalline water with his talons, and keep flying on, the ground disappearing below us. I try not to think about the way we’re leaving the forest so far behind.

When night falls, Kaion seems to instinctively descend, landing us in the snow heavily. He immediately slouches, his white belly feathers becoming well acquainted with the snow. Zelda more or less rolls off his back, stretching her legs with a long yawn, her eyes still in the squint that was necessary against the wind we’ve been flying through. Kaion makes a long, sad-sounding cry, and I clamber off his back and look at him.

“What’s wrong?” I ask him, and he caws plaintively, a look in his eyes like a sad Wolfos. I rub his feathers reassuringly. “You just rest, huh? You’ve flown a long way today. Thank you,”

He looks slightly happier as he closes his eyes, and I turn to find Zelda already melting the snow and spreading out the blankets. I take the pillows as she manages to squeeze them out of the opening of her pouch, laying them out; Navi flutters in a wobbly fashion out of my shirt and ploughs into the pillow.

“Ngh,” she elucidates.

“You’ll be fine,” Zelda says, already chewing on one of the meat pieces. She throws me a pouch, which I barely manage to catch, fumbling it in stiff fingers. “Grab something to eat and we’ll sleep; I dunno about you, but the wind and snow in my eyes has made me even more tired than just walking did,”

I scavenge a small meal out of the bag and go burrowing in Zelda’s pouch- tossed to the side- for the bag containing the cheese. Because that stuff was good. I steal a little of it and eat my makeshift dinner, drinking from the canteen Seres gave us and then refilling it with snow, before laying back on the pillows. Silence.

“I think we messed up, Link,” Zelda says finally, sounding so tired that her normal inhibitions are gone. “This is a mess,”

“You’re telling me,” Navi murmurs. 

“What happens if we don’t get your harp back?” I ask her. She shifts.

“The Goddess Harp is an ancient instrument with the power to cause strange, otherworldly effects with its songs. The notes tap into the magic the world was woven with, and it’s entirely possible that you could tear the world apart with the right song,”

“It sounds like a stupidly dangerous power to be left in an old harp,” Navi grouses. Zelda lets out a long breath.

“To be honest, the harp has never been out of my family before. I have no idea if its magical powers translate to other people, but I’m assuming they do. Probably not as strongly as they work for me, but it’s still possible to break the universe with it,”

“Could the ocarina do the same?” I ask, thinking of the blue instrument. Zelda shrugs.

“The harp deals with the spatial aspect of magic. The physical stuff. It manipulates elements, changes the landscape, that kind of thing. The ocarina deals with the temporal and non-physical aspects. Supposedly it can slow down and speed up time, or form a temporal barrier that stops everything except that which comes from a specific time in history. Those are just the documented uses, though. The ocarina isn’t as well studied as the harp- and to be honest, it’s probably less practical than the harp. It’s harder to use and even harder to control.”

I breathe slowly, tiredly, letting the sound of a gentle breeze fill the space in our conversation.

“It really is a mess,” I say quietly, curling up to go to sleep. Zelda hesitates, but follows my lead, and Kaion shuffles over, pressing his great warm side against me, tucking me in close to him. Feeling warm and safe in a way I haven’t since we left the woods, I close my eyes.

_ Blackness. Emptiness. It’s even scarier than the blurry vision of my normal nightmares- at least there, I have a vague idea of my surroundings. Here, there’s nothing. I don’t dare move, and somehow I can actually feel my heartbeat in the silence, thrumming up through my neck and pulsing in my ears. Nothingness. _

_ It’s broken by a sudden flare of sound that drives me to my knees, my hands over my ears in a futile effort to protect them from the onslaught, and it takes me far too long to recognise the sounds as the words they are- furiously spit, such livid rage in the every tone that I want to flee whatever’s saying them except I can’t because the words are everywhere and I am nowhere. Nowhere that is blackness and darkness and silence but also raging red and alight with flames and filled with screaming Kokiri, all at once, neither at all, twisting around and around in my head, braided together in such a way that I don’t know which one is true, if either, if both, if neither. _

_ “Give it to me!” the voice howls, and I can feel my hands shaking and my gut searing and- for some reason- the left side of my face burning. “ _ Give it to me, you damned rat! _ ” _

_ What is ‘it’?  _

_ “Who are you?” I spit back defiantly, except I have no voice and I can’t break the silence. The desire to talk doesn’t even make it to my throat, it just peters out in such a way that I know isn’t right, isn’t fair, no speech and no screams and no sobs. Bound to silence in such a way that it’s more restricting than ropes, my senses blocked off so that the only thing I can register is sound and pain. _

_ The voice is snarling more things but they slide out of the identifiable range, becoming the blur that so often fills dreams and couldn’t be understood by the most talented of fairies. Something suddenly strikes me in my already painful gut and the scream I want to make doesn’t sound at all, and I suddenly realise I’m coiled in on myself like a dying flower as the sound keeps going, keeps  _ burning _ , tearing away at me as if the wind at the ashes of the forest, making the flames and emptiness flicker together, whipping me into the air and flames and pulling me apart into tiny fragments, unrecognizable for what I once was and never will be again, because you can’t shape the ashes back into the trees and homes and people they once were. The bite of a Gohma, the snap of a leg, the paralysing confusion of one who doesn’t know where he is or why he can’t breathe, the screams of Kokiri, the burning of flames, and throughout all of it, silence, somehow coexisting with the rage-filled screams of the voice. Silence and cacophony, darkness and fire, emptiness and everything, so paradoxical and yet together at once, twisting me apart into the tiny pieces that I’m made of and yet don’t make me, putting me back together like a child who has broken their doll and doesn’t remember how it was meant to go together. Legs and arms and hearts and lungs all in the wrong places, all forgotten, leaving an empty shell floating in the darkness with just silence and screaming to keep it company, keep it from drifting away entirely even though it’s pretty sure that’s what it wants now, that drifting away is better than being left here, that drifting away would save it from everything that has hurt it, is hurting it, will hurt it, because the hurting isn’t going to stop and it isn’t allowed to give up, it can’t give up, and somehow that becomes easier,  _ has _ to become easier, or it’ll break, it’ll break like burnt twigs, and if it breaks one more time no magic will fix it ever, left in so many fragments that its edges will never fit together again. Giving up is the stupid option and yet it wonders if maybe it should, if maybe giving up would be a better option, if maybe- _

Nobody wakes me this time. I jolt out of the dream straight into paralysed panic, my hands locked tight around blankets that are heavy and damp with snow. It takes a moment for me to realise I’m not breathing, and only then because the throbbing in the back of my throat and in my chest becomes more insistent. I take a long, shuddering breath, trying to will away the feeling of that tangible roar brushing against me, trying not to let the ringing anger sounding in my ears remind me what I just escaped from. It would be easier if the sun was up, I know, but it’s not and I can’t will away the shaking in my fingers as I raise them to brush snow off my face. Zelda has fallen asleep and with her the warming spell, but the thick blankets and pelts that cover us- some of Kokiri make, some courtesy of Seres- ward away the frost that would otherwise probably kill us. Even now, the tips of my ears burn. Although that might not be the cold, but the dream. Nightmare. Whatever.

I force a few more breaths, trying to keep a sort of rhythm, a pattern, some sort of level ground to anchor to rather than being swept away in the throes of the furious screaming that won’t leave my head, clinging tight to the rough fabric to remind me I’m not floating in emptiness, that my senses still work, that it wasn’t real. Oh, goddesses, I can still hear them screaming- Saria, Neri, Miray... _ Saria… _ were they screaming at all? Was it silence? Screaming or silence? Which was it?

I feel the warming spell kick into effect before I realise Zelda’s woken up, and I hurriedly try to still my ragged breathing so I don’t freak her out. 

“Link?” she says sleepily, opening bleary blue eyes, and I don’t look at her,  _ can’t _ look at her, instead remaining rigidly still with one hand still locked around the blankets like a lifeline, like it’s the only thing stopping me from drifting back into nightmares of terrifying emptiness and burning forests. Zelda cottons on quickly, and I can feel her hesitation before she suddenly moves, shaking off snow. I flinch violently when suddenly her arms loop around me, one slipping under my head like a pillow and the other protectively over my chest. I mirror her hesitation for a long minute before breaking my stillness and rolling onto my side, drawing my knees up to my chest as I curl into her embrace. “You’re safe, hmm?” she soothes. “You’re safe. Whatever you saw, it wasn’t real,”

I don’t even realise I’m trembling until she starts moving her hand, rubbing my back comfortingly.

“I-I don’t know if it was burning or if there was nothing there at all,” I whisper, voice hoarse. She pulls me closer, my head resting against her chest.

“Neither,” she says gently. “You’re here. You’re safe, okay? I- I know dreams are scary and all too real, but I can promise you that they won’t hurt you. Your nightmares can’t hurt you,”

Both of us hear the unspoken  _ not like mine can _ . I stay silent for a while, feeling the warmth of her spell and her hug leeching some of the blankness out of my frame.

“Thank you,” I murmur into her shirt.

“Impa used to do this,” she says. “I know it helps. Just...rest, okay? You’re safe here. I won’t let anything hurt you.”

Hating myself for saying it, needing to hear her say it, I whisper back- “Promise?”- hating the broken way my voice sounds. She takes a long breath.

“Of course,”


	22. The Great Lon Lon Cow Parade

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Their welcoming party at Lon Lon consists of a herd of cows and an extremely odd redhead who seems to take a shine to them...

Waking up still wrapped in an awful lot of Zelda is a welcome change to the cold awakenings of the past few days. I breathe in slowly- she smells like the rough soap we used in Lochmede, with the slight mustiness of Kaion’s feathers accompanying the scent. Her hair is poking me in the face a little, but I’m not really willing to wake her up. Her slow breathing is reassuring, keeping time for me as Kaion shuffles slightly, his feathers still pressed against us and radiating warmth. Navi wakes next, her drawn-out yawn sounding more exhausted than it should be after our sleep- smart money says she spent most of the night awake keeping watch. That, or she slept about as well as I did. She looks at the two of us wrapped up together and a strange look passes across her face. She stays silent though, perched on the pillow with the soles of her feet pressed together in a meditative pose. She looks down and I wonder what she’s dwelling on that has her so troubled.

Zelda drags herself back to consciousness not long after, sleepily blinking to focus. I can pinpoint the exact moment she registers that I’m still burrowed against her like an Octorok; she abruptly stills for a few moments before realising I’m already awake.  

“How are you feeling?” she asks gently, and I politely yawn in her face. She makes an admirable effort not to grimace but inevitably fails.

“Better,” I say, lifting a hand to shove off the blanket, as well as the thick layer of snow that’s settled on top. The awkward silence is just as heavy as the soggy blanket and snow, though, so I set about changing the subject as I grab Zelda’s pouch and unlace the top, stuffing the pillows into it with some difficulty while Zelda looks at the blanket grumpily.

“I’m sick of having to dry this thing,” she says, and  _ finally _ Navi speaks up.

“Why not just tie it to Kaion’s foot or something? Let the air dry it,”

Zelda pauses. “That’s actually a pretty good idea,” she says, turning her gaze on a still soundly-sleeping Kaion. She hesitates, looking at me. “Wake him up for me?”

Suppressing a snort at her apparent cowardice, I shove the last pillow into the pouch and toss it at her to lace up again, walking over to Kaion. I lean against his broad, feathery chest.

“Hey. Wake up,” He doesn’t stir, the only sign of life being the deep huffy breaths sending gusts of air across my face. I reach up and scratch his puffy cheek feathers. “Hey. Get up, lazy,”

“Hypocrite,” Navi mutters. I ignore her and boot Kaion in the breastbone. 

“Wake up, you overgrown sparrow,”

He opens one eye and gives me a reproachful look. I instantly feel guilty. “Sorry. You’re not an overgrown sparrow, I promise,” He huffs and closes his eye again, and I blink. “Don’t go  _ back _ to sleep!”

Finally, with much grumbling, he stands up, flapping his wings to dislodge snow caught in his feathers. I brush some out of his long plumed tail, and Zelda sets about trying to tie the blanket to Kaion’s leg. He’s rather uncooperative, hopping backwards while squawking in protest, or lifting the foot off the ground and out of her reach while wildly beating his wings to stay upright. Eventually Zelda just gives up and shoves the blanket back in the pouch.

“We’d better get going,” she says. “All going well, we’ll make it to Lon Lon before nightfall,”

Lon Lon has a surprisingly comfortable atmosphere. The scent of straw is strong in the late afternoon air- the same smell that makes Zelda grimace has me breathing deeply in, relishing the familiarity of it. The dusty road is packed with people and horses in a stunning array of colours, dragging behind them huge carts packed with jars. Nothing is still, and it’s beautiful.

“According to Kaepora, the Zoran delegation won’t be here until tomorrow,” Zelda says pensively.

I hug the quilted shirt tighter as a chilly breeze sweeps through, strong with the scent of animals and feed. 

“What do we do, then?” I ask, bewildered. Zelda shrugs.

“Not much we  _ can _ do. I suppose we’d better stock up on some stuff, maybe. Although Seres packed pretty much everything we could need,”

“We could get some weed poison,” Navi grouses. “Keep those freaky moving plants away at night,”

“Peahats?” Zelda says, raising an eyebrow. “Nayru, Navi. You don’t just let people sleep near Peahats. If there’s one around there’s probably a whole bunch of immature ones as well. You’ve got to  _ tell  _ me stuff like that!”

Navi’s glow flickers, as if she’s not sure whether to turn navy or bright red, and ends up not really changing at all.

“Sorry,” she mutters. Zelda looks at her.

“How’d you keep them away?” she asks. “And how did you do it without waking us up?”

“I don’t think they really noticed us,” Navi mutters. “They just...kept moving. I thought I was hallucinating at first. Got super stressed out and ended up just blasting a hole through the middle of them. Turns out that even plants don’t survive getting a hole punched in their gut,”

“I don’t think  _ anything _ survives having a hole punched in their gut, Navi,” Zelda mutters, pulling me out of the path of a cart full to bursting with pumpkins. The man waves at Zelda in thanks, and Zelda nods back before turning back to me. “You know what we ought to find you?”

“What?”

“A shield,” she says. “I trained you to fight with one but we left it behind. And that shield would never have stood up to a decent attack anyway. We should find you one,”

“Makes sense,” I agree. “Would we find one here?”

“Lon Lon is the market capital of Hyrule. Of course we’ll find one here,”

She immediately bustles around and over several crates of various goods, leaving me to catch up.

“She moves fast!” Navi complains, fluttering after me. She’s earning a few odd looks but she’s opted to not sit in my hat again because she wants to ‘breathe fresh air, not Link-smell,’. I’m still not sure if that was an insult or not.

We catch up to Zelda right as she lifts a small metal shield off a table, testing its weight.

“Here,” she says. “Is this okay?”

I take it from her and slide my arm under the straps.

“Yeah, actually,” I reply, slightly surprised, hefting it experimentally. “Definitely heavier than the one I practiced with, but it’s not too heavy for me to lift with a bit of time,”

“That was easy,” Navi comments as she examines the shield. Zelda hands over some rupees and pays a little extra for a clasp to affix it to my baldric with.

“Thank you!” she says, turning away from the stall and helping me hook the shield over my sword. “So you just gotta...tug that, I think, and it’ll…”

The shield falls on her foot.

I manage not to laugh, somehow. Navi isn’t quite so successful, and Zelda shoots her a wounded look through the pain.

“Cow,” she mutters, and Navi’s high-pitched giggles erupt all over again. Zelda snickers a little herself, picking up the shield and strapping it on properly this time. She steps back. “Okay then. So...there’s not really much to do here until the Zora arrive,”

“There’s really not,”

Zelda bites her lip. “Well...uh, I’m really not sure what to do,”

“Can we just look around?” I ask eventually. “I mean...we didn’t get to look around in Lochmede, and I’ve never been in a Hylian town before…”

_ Traitor, _ my mind hisses at me. Wanting to explore the town when Saria could be  _ dead! _ I bite my lip. She’s fine. I’m sure she is. Zelda said so.

_ Yeah, sure, trust Zelda. Dumbass. _

“Sure,” she says, oblivious to my inner turmoil. “How about we just...what is that?”

She’s tilted her head to one side, listening intently with a look of absolute confusion on her face. I follow suit. Navi, however, is smarter and uses her eyes instead, fluttering a little higher into the air. I can practically hear her jaw drop, and a few moments later I know why.

_ Cows. _ Dozens of them. Charging through the marketplace towards us amidst screeches of surprise, and Zelda yanks me backwards out of their path. They charge past and I catch a glimpse of something red and yellow on one of their backs, whooping in joy like they’re possessed. The stampede passes and there’s a moment of stunned silence before a horse comes galloping past, a wiry man hunched over the saddle with a lasso in grip. He too fades away and a few moments later the town guard sprints across in front of us, hollering, with their lassos in grip trying to catch up to the cows that are quickly disappearing into the distance. There is a long pause as their thundering footsteps die away.

“What...the  _ hell... _ was  _ that _ ?!” Navi breathes in abject horror.

“I don’t know,” Zelda says, similarly horrified. 

“That mooing is going to haunt my nightmares,” I hiss, trying to banish the demonic sound from my head. Okay, sure, the mooing will not be making an appearance in my nightmares- it’d be laughed out of the room by the fire and all- but  _ still! _

“I never want to see anything like that again,” Navi says.

“Should we follow them?” I ask.

“Definitely,” Navi nods fervently, zooming off after the cows. Zelda looks amused but joins me when I race after her. The cows aren’t hard to track, having left absolute chaos behind them in the form of toppled carts, earthbound people and scattered produce. Zelda nimbly vaults over a fallen jar despite her long dress, following after the cows and guards with an enthusiasm that can only come from burning curiosity. Navi is ahead of both of us, but all three of us make it there in time to see the figure that had been mounted on a cow get deftly lassoed by the man on the horse and yanked backwards off their makeshift mount to land in a heap on the ground. The man on the horse leaves the fallen cow-rider to the men on foot as he pursues the cows.

“That looks like it hurt,” Zelda winces as the girl- a fiery redhead girl in purple dress- tries to get to her feet with her arms lassoed to her sides. She somehow manages to do so, planting her boots and racing off after her still-stampeding cows, trying to free her arms from the lasso. Her scarf comes loose from around her neck and a flash of gold hits the ground but she doesn’t stop for it, running like she’s fleeing a Gohma or something. That is, until a guard catches up with her and tackles her to the ground. Someone’s kid whoops at the scene, and Zelda and I watch as the redhead is hauled to her feet and has her hands tied behind her. Navi lands on my shoulder.

“You don’t see  _ that _ every day,” she comments, watching as the man on the horse catches up to and then overtakes the cows near the gray brick wall that surrounds the town, his mount whinnying fiercely to head off the now-meek and frightened cows.

“Where’s the girl going?” I ask, watching her get tugged away. She’s laughing, a delighted fire in her eyes as she’s dragged off.

Zelda bites her lip. “Well, she’s probably going to get charged with cattle rustling or something. But she’s a child still, so she’ll probably just get turned over to her parents for punishment,”

My eyes follow the girl as she’s led back the way she came, towards a little house that borders paddocks. I jog forwards and scoop up the little gold object she dropped- a pin. I look at Zelda, unsure.

“She dropped this,”

“A pin like that is either expensive or an heirloom,” she replies, examining it. “We might wait a hour or so and then see if we can find her house to return it,”

“I’ll follow her to her house,” Navi declares.

“That sounded creepy,” I tell her. She nods.

“Yeah, I realised that. Shut up,”

I watch as she flutters off after the redhead and the guards, fading into an indistinct spot of light. I abruptly realise that in all the commotion I’d missed the fact that the sun was setting.

“I hope Kaion found a good place to roost,” I tell Zelda, and she tilts her head. 

“I’m sure he did,” she says. “ _ We _ need a place to roost, though. I think we might be told to move on by the town guard if we try and sleep in the open. And I don’t know if Lon Lon has any inns. I’ve never been here before,”

“What’s an inn?”

“Basically a place where people pay to sleep the night,” she explains.

“Okay,”

She rolls one shoulder, rubbing at it- her shoulders probably hurt from being hunched on Kaion- and sets her sights on a particular tree. “We can sit under that tree, though. Pass some time,”

We settle against the trunk and lean back contentedly. Zelda coils into a ball like a cat, and I find myself staring up at the sky as we wait. The stars are beginning to peek out from behind the deep amber glow of the horizon, and it’s amazing how many of them there are. There have never been this many visible from the forest, because the trees block most of them. It’s a peaceful sight. 

When Navi comes back, she looks satisfied.

“I found that girl’s house,” she says. “I reckon we’re safe to go up there now. Her dad was angry but he’s calmed down now,”

“Alrighty then,” Zelda says, standing up and gently dusting her hands on her skirt. “Let’s go,”

We follow Navi’s glow along the path, deep hoofprints catching at our shoes as we take the same route the stampeding cows followed earlier.

“I wonder why she did that, though? Why would she ride a cow?” Zelda muses. “It’s just such a strange thing to do,”

“She’s not all there, if you ask me,” grumbles Navi. “You see the way she was laughing? That’s a nutjob in the making, right there,”

“Hey,” I say, feeling obliged to stand up. “She’s not a nutjob,”

“Witness for the defense over here,” mutters Zelda. “You don’t even know her, Link,”

“I trust  _ you _ , don’t I? Why wouldn’t I trust her? She hasn’t attacked me or kidnapped me,”

There’s a pause.

“Touché,” Zelda grunts, as Navi hones in on a house. 

“Got that pin?” the fairy asks, and I flash it at her in confirmation. “Good,”

We cross a paddock gate and follow a path worn through the grass up to the house, and I raise my fist and rap on the door. A few moments later, it swings open to reveal the same fiery-haired girl from earlier. She looks at me with interested blue eyes.

“That’s a fairy,” she says curiously, without any introduction whatsoever.

“Hello to you too,” Zelda says, all business. “We found something of yours, down in the village,”

“Oh, hey, stranger,” she says. “You and fairy-boy here don’t live in Lon Lon, do you?”

“Passing through,” the blonde says brusquely, elbowing me. I show the girl the golden pin.

“Oh, yay!” she says, snatching it out of my hand and pinning it back to her scarf. “I was so upset when I lost it! I wanted to go down and look for it right away, but dad grounded me,”

“Not without reason,” Navi mutters, “you stole someone’s cows and stampeded them,”

The girl looks suspiciously at Navi.

“Hey, now, fairy,” she says defensively. “Those cows are my cows. I can do what I want with them,”

“Not your dad’s cows?” I ask, confused. 

“Well, his cows too,” she amends. “But I’m a Lon as much as he is and that means they’re my cows too. I thought it’d be good for them to get out of the back paddock, so I went to move ‘em to the front. Didn’t realise the front paddock gate was opened and they were out of there like their tails were on fire. Jumped on Candie’s back and tried to get her to turn around. ‘Cept I was having too much fun so I just ran with them,”

There’s a hesitation while all three of us look at this odd girl.

“Well, I suppose if it was an accident, that’s fine then, right?” I try, and she looks at me approvingly. 

“Damn straight, fairy boy,” she says cheerily. 

“My name’s Link,” I mutter. “Not fairy boy,”

“Well, I’m Malon,” she says proudly. “Nice to meet ya,”

“We should be on our way, Malon,” Zelda says hurriedly. 

“Where’re ya sleepin?” she asks, a twang in her voice. “Don’t be going to Carrie’s now, she lets all the roaches in,”

Zelda’s face can only be described as horrified.

“Uh, no, I don’t think we’ll be going to ‘Carrie’s’,” she says. “Does Lon Lon have any other inns we could stay at,”

“Aw, where’re your parents?” Malon says, and I find myself rather liking the cadence of her voice. “Don’t they deal with that?”

“We’re travelling alone,” Zelda sniffs, and Malon’s face immediately sobers.

“Ah. Gotcha. Here, lemme ask dad- he’ll probably let ya stay here, hmm?  _ Dad! _ ”

Both Navi, Zelda and I wear identical expressions of bewilderment as Malon vanishes from the doorway, leaving it wide open in front of us.

“Good thing we’re not psycho murderers,” Zelda murmurs. “We could just waltz in,”

“Still think she’s not crazy, Link?” Navi snipes.

“That’s not crazy,” I say firmly. “That’s lonely. Learn the difference,”

“What?” Navi says, bewildered.

“It’s the kind of attention-seeking stuff Mido would do, but without the malice,” I explain. “I’d bet you any number of rupees that she just wanted to have some fun, hang the consequences,”

“That’s one way of putting it,” Zelda sounds put off. “She seems nice enough behind that, though. Unladylike, but.”

“Yeah,” I agree as Malon comes thumping back down the stairs, a hairy-faced Hylian man in tow.

“Hello,” he says. “Who’re you?”

“We’re just passing through,” Navi says.

“Malon dropped her pin earlier, so we were returning it,” I explain. The man’s hand flies to an identical pin he has clasped on a string.

“Oh, that’s good of you,” he says. “When she told me she’d lost it I was devastated. Her mother’s, you know?”

Zelda looks abashed. The absence of her mother very much explains her unladylike behaviour.  _ Ha. Take that, Zelda.  _ “Now, what’s this about you needin’ a place to stay?”

“Sorry,” Zelda says. “We wanted to know if there are any inns in town,”

“There’s Carrie’s,” the man answers, “but I’d bet Malon’s already put you off there. She swears up and down she saw a roach the size of a rupee in there once. Then again, she’s also convinced that we have Picori in the attic, so don’t take her word as honest truth,”

“Daddy,” protests Malon.

“Yeah...we’re not too keen on there,” Navi says. “Is there anywhere else?”

“Not really,” he says. “Barker’s closed up for the winter because he gets no business- not exactly trading season, you know? Only traders that come through are the mountain folk,”

“Okay,” Zelda nods. “Thank you for your time,”

“Hold up just one minute,” he halts her. “Where were you planning on staying?”

“We can sleep outdoors, it’s no issue,” she says. 

“Oh, I can’t let you do that,” he responds immediately. “Cold’s brutal out there.”

He hesitates.

“If you’ve got bedding on you, you can stay here for the night, like Malon said. We don’t have a spare bed, but if you have your outdoor gear it should be no issue,”

“Really?” I say in disbelief, and he gives me the same ‘wow, the shy boy talked,’ look that the man in Lochmede had given me.

“Yeah,” he said. “Only right to repay you for bringing that pin back anyways. Most folks would have just taken it,”

“If you’re sure,” Zelda says hesitantly, “that would be lovely,”

“Well, come in then,” he says, oblivious to Malon’s little victory dance being performed behind him. “I’m Talon.”

“Zelda,”

“I’m Navi,”

“Link,” I say in a small voice. He gives us the once-over that’s already annoyingly familiar at our names, but clearly sees no significance beyond coincidence and throws open the door.

“Welcome to Lon Lon. Make yourselves at home,”


	23. Red Ice, Blue Scales

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The princess of the Zora arrives in Lon Lon, and Zelda knows exactly how to play the diplomacy game.

I’m woken the next morning when Malon drops her breakfast on my face. Not even kidding.

“Gah! I’m so sorry!” she says, racing for the washcloth. I think I hurt my back with how fast I sat up. She seals the deal by proceeding to throw the sodden washcloth in my face as well. I scrub the food off and she takes the washcloth back.

“Sleep okay?” she asks, and I shrug. 

“Sort of,” I lie. Again, mostly fire dreams, although definitely not as bad as last night. I refuse to confess to the part where Zelda and I ended up tangled in a knot for most of the night despite our best efforts not to. Malon nod, oblivious.

“Well, I gotta make my own breakfast again, you want some?”

Zelda sits up, groaning.

“Oh, you too,” Malon says. “You want me to make you breakfast?”

“That would be lovely,” Zelda yawns. “Good morning, Malon,”

“Morning, straw-head,” Malon greets cheerfully. “I’ll go prepare it for you,”

“Link’s vegetarian!” Zelda warns, and Malon frowns.

“What’s that mean?”

“He doesn’t eat meat. Or eggs,”

“Aw, that’s so boring,” Malon says, eyeing me unhappily. “Okay, though. I can make something. I’m plenty good at cooking, just you watch!”

She dances away and Zelda and I look at each other with twin expressions of skepticism.

“It’s entirely possible that she can’t cook,” Zelda says evenly.

“Aw, I dunno,” I raise a hand. “What she dropped on my face was pretty good,”

Zelda looks at the bits of food scattered everywhere. 

“Okay then,” she says, sounding dubious still. “If you say so,”

“I do,” I mutter. “I do say so,”

There’s a short stalemate of us both looking at each other with no real argument, broken by Navi’s contented yawn.

“Morning,” she says, surveying the room. Talon has lit the fireplace again and I’m extremely glad that I’m on the opposite side of the room from the source of the warmth- even now, I shoot it a death glare to make sure it doesn’t get any ideas along the lines of spitting embers and igniting the walls.

Talon lumbers past, plucking a pork-pie hat off the hat-stand by the door.

“What are you dressing up for?” Zelda asks him, eyeing off his lack of the overalls he had been wearing yesterday.

“Oh, I’m meetin’ with the Zoran ambassadors today,” he says, “and they’ve brought along the future queen of the Zora so she can see the world outside of their little pond. Gotta make a good impression, yeah?”

“Quite,” Zelda says. I frown.

“Wait, how come you’re the one meeting with them?” I ask. Talon raises an eyebrow.

“I’m the mayor and head farmer of Lon Lon,” he says. “So I’m in charge of the negotiations,”

“Fairy boy and straw-head should come with us!” Malon says, struggling to tie a bonnet under her jaw. Her red hair bursts out the back of it like a demented mane, refusing to be tamed under the frilly fabric. Malon looks like she’d like nothing better than to throw it into the fireplace. Zelda, meanwhile, has perked up at the comment- of course, the future queen of the Zora just happens to own the very stone we’re looking for.

“Is it common, for the Zora princess to be brought on a simple diplomatic trip?” Zelda asks evenly.

“Oh, yeah,” Talon says, searching for his right boot. “Apparently she’s quite interested in things that aren’t lakes, so she either demands to be brought along or stows away. We were told right when we arranged this meetin’ that it was almost certain that the princess would be present,”

“Cool,” I say, feeling like I’m kind of unimportant to this discussion. 

“Daddy,” whines Malon. “Me and the Zora princess will totally be bored! Can we bring them along?”

“You just met them, honey,” Talon reminds her. Good parenting.

“Well,  _ yeah, _ but they’re nice. I like them. Can we bring them?”

“I’m not sure they’d be wantin’ to see such a boring meeting,” Talon says anxiously.

“If I may,” Zelda ventures, “I’m quite educated in diplomacy. I’m rather invested in it,”

Very funny, Zelda. Talon surveys us.

“Ah, to hell with it,” he mutters. “Why the hell not. You got any nicer clothes?”

“Yes,” Zelda says, grinning. “Thank you so much, sir,”

“Talon,” he grunts, as Zelda grabs our bag and scurries off. 

“Come on, Link, put on your tunic,”

I follow her and we repeat the backs-to-each other changing of clothes, and I quite like returning my hat to my head. Navi lands on it.

“You, Zelda, are rather good at getting what you want,”

“Yep,” Zelda says, fixing her belt over her Kokiri dress. 

“So, we’re just going to ask the princess about the stone?” I ask her.

“Yep. There’s a reason I’m not telling you to lose the hat,” Zelda points out. “You look quite iconic. All we have to do is prove that you really are the hero- which we can do with the ocarina and the first stone- and if she’s got any sense she’ll hand it over,”

“Won’t I look like an idiot if I’m dressed like a hero in front of all those fancy Zora?” I ask. “Also, what’s a Zora?”

“Holy hell,” Zelda says, “you don’t know what a Zora is?”

“Do you  _ think _ he would know what a Zora is?” Navi says scathingly. “ _ I  _ don’t know what a Zora is,”

“They’re an aquatic people. They’re humanoid, but they’re more fish than Hylian. They live in the waters of Jabuzor, in the Zoran mountains.”

“Okay then,” I say. “Second question?”

“It’s not that uncommon for kids to dress up as the hero,” Zelda says dismissively. “Everyone grows up with their grandmother telling them they’re probably the hero. Except me. I kept getting told I was definitely the Princess of Destiny. I didn’t get why I wasn’t allowed to be the hero. Wrong bloodline, I guess,”

“So...I’ll look like a gullible kid?”

“Yep,” Zelda says. “But really. They’re Zora. They’ll look down on you anyway,”

“Comforting,” Navi mutters.

“You ready?”

I buckle my baldric back on and make sure my sword and shield are firmly attached. “Yep,”

“Alrighty then,” Zelda offers a grin. “We’re well on our way, Link. Have heart,”

“Sure,” I mutter.

We rejoin Talon and Malon, and the latter squeals.

“Fairy boy! I love your costume!”

Costume? Ouch.

“It’s, uh-”

“You’re totally my bodyguards now! Both of ya!”

“I really don’t think-” Navi tries.

“Shush, fairy girl!”

“I’m not sure if I should be offended or not,” Zelda says.

“Ah, Malon, honey, let up a little,” Talon says nervously. “You both look fine,”

“Thanks,” Zelda says. “When’s the meeting? Thank you so much for letting us come along,”

“We’ll be meetin’ with the Zora delegation in about an hour,” Talon says. 

“Lovely,” Zelda says, a smile quirking her lips.

**[/]{INTERLUDE-THE GRAVE ROBBER}[\\]**

“So, how long do bones like that take to heal?” she asked, gesturing to the Rito’s broken wing.

Quill surveyed it with a doleful look in his eyes. The grave robber was no expert on reading people, but she was pretty damn sure she hadn’t cast it right. The kid seemed to be in perpetual pain.

“Five weeks is the normal time,” he said. “I think. I’m not too sure, I haven’t learned anything about medicine,”

“That’s too long,” the grave robber sighed, leaning back against the chimney of the roof they were situated on. Aside from the nasty smell of soot, this rooftop had turned out to be a pretty good place to rest for the night. “You reckon we could heal it with magic?”

“I’ve learned nothing about magic either,” admitted Quill. “I do not see why not, though I can’t assure you. Magic isn’t a common practice on my island,”

“Of course it isn’t,” the grave robber rolled her eyes. “The more you talk, the more I’m starting to think that you didn’t even come from anywhere, you just dropped out of the sky,”

“I didn’t,” protested Quill.

“I know, Rito. I was kidding,” 

“Oh,”

“Let me guess. You don’t have sarcasm either?” she asked.

“...No,”

“Your existence must be pitiful,” frowned the grave robber, and Quill’s face fell. “What  _ do _ you do?”

“At least I can fly,” the boy groused, and the grave robber snorted.

“True. We can’t do that here,”

“See? I win,”

“Shush,”

The grave robber got to her feet, stretching out her muscles and surveying the city around her. “Well, then,” she said. “I guess I’d better find you a healer,”

“But...won’t they be mad at me?” Quill asked worriedly. “I mean, those people in the armour were shouting at me,”

“I’ll just have to find someone who’ll keep their mouth shut,” she muttered. “Wait here, hmm?”

“Hey!” Quill yelped, but too late- the grave robber was already clambering down the bricks to the streets below, striding off like she hadn’t a care in the world. First things first- a healer.

She quickly located one of the many homeless tucked away in the corners of the city, where the town guard wouldn’t move them on in the middle of the night.

“Hey, you,” she said, shaking him awake. “My friend is hurt. Do you know where I can find a healer?”

The bleary-eyed man regarded her tattered clothes and patched cloak, seemingly recognising some sort of kinship.

“There’s a man near the barley seller,” he said, his voice as scratchy as his whiskers. “He’s got compassion, he should help you out,”

“Thank you,” the grave robber said, straightening. She paused, then dug in her pouch, finding a blue rupee. “Here, have this,”

The man looked at her, almost suspicious.

“Why?”

“Don’t question my generosity,” snapped the grave robber, already regretting the sudden attack of kindness. She stalked off down the alleyway and out into the town, shoving her hands into her pockets frustratedly. She hated it when people decided to be all weird when she was nice. There was a reason she didn’t do it often.

She located the barley seller that the homeless man had told her about, and from there managed to find the healer. She rapped on the door with stiff knuckles, and it swung open. Behind it stood an elderly man dressed in blue robes, hair so aged as to be white hanging down from under a strangely shaped hat.

“Are you a healer?” the grave robber asked, with no aplomb. The man looked rather surprised, but nodded.

“I’m versed in healing magic, yes,”

“Can you keep your mouth shut if I bring someone who’s not supposed to be here to you?”

“I...what do you mean?”

“If I brought someone to you could you keep your trap shut?!” she snapped, and the man raised his hands.

“I will help you if you need help,” he said placatingly.

“Good,” she said. “I’ll be back,”

She returned to the rooftop where she had left Quill- he was sitting against the chimney looking worried.

“Please don’t leave me behind,” he said, sounding miserable. 

“Yeah, yeah,” muttered the grave robber, collecting her belongings. She threw the cloak at Quill. “Put this on. I found someone who’ll heal your wing,”

“Really?” he asked, his voice annoyingly hopeful.

“No. I said that just to be funny.  _ Yes, _ really. Hurry up,”

Quill shrugged the cloak on, tugging it up over his feathery crest and using his good hand to hold it closed so that his wings weren’t visible.

“Where are we going?”

“Just follow me,”

He more or less managed to follow her down the side of the building, clumsy due to his broken wing but with his taloned feet lending him an edge. She led him back to the healer and rapped on the door again. The man opened it and the grave robber walked inside, Quill following her. She tugged on the cloak, pulling down the hood, and the healer stared.

“His wing’s broken. Can you heal it?”

“I…” stammered the man, “can I see the break?”

Quill hesitated but undid the cloak, wincing as he lifted his wing to show the healer.

“Who cast this?” he asked.

“Me,” the grave robber said. “Obviously, I’m no healer. Can you fix it?”

“It’s not actually cast that badly. Come over here,” the man said, beckoning Quill to a chair. The Rito sat down gingerly, his talons not even touching the floor. “Let me see,”

The healer used a short knife to cut away the rugged plaster, examining the wing. “I think I can, although you’ve left it a little long,”

“I got impatient waiting for it to heal naturally,” she said. 

“Alrighty then,” the healer said, plucking bits of the plaster out of his feathers. “I...I think I should be able to do this. The part that’s broken is almost identical to Hylian arm bones…”

His own finger bones seemed to glow under his skin, a tawny yellow colour turning his wrinkled flesh translucent. Quill stared in disbelief as the man seemed to press harder and harder on the broken bone without it actually hurting. Finally, the glow faded and the man stepped back, wiping sweat from his face.

“There. How’s that?”

Quill flexed the wing experimentally.

“It feels way better,” he said, beak curving into a smile. “Thank you!”

“You’re welcome,” the man said, wiping sweat from his face. The grave robber tossed the man a red rupee.

“Don’t tell anyone that you saw a bird-person come in here, alright?” she said. “Come on, Quill,”

Quill pulled the cloak back on.

“Th-thank you, mister,” he said, and the healer nodded.

“Come back if it starts hurting. It shouldn’t- it was set right, after all- but still…”

“Okay,” he said, pulling the hood up and following after the grave robber. The door shut behind him with a sharp click.

**[/]{END OF INTERLUDE}[\\]**

The Zora princess is a bitch.

That’s honestly my first, second and possibly even third impressions of her. She leans back in her chair as Talon takes his seat alongside several other farmers, facing the weirdly colourful Zora on the opposite side of the table. Zelda wasn’t kidding- they’re fish people. There’s really no better term for it. 

“I don’t think I can do this,” I whisper to Zelda, at the exact same time as Navi stops dead in the air and blurts “Nope,” at the sight of them.

“Oh, shut up,” Zelda hisses, shoving me into a chair right beside the Zora princess. A taller Zora- I’m assuming he’s her bodyguard?- immediately gives me an accusing, appraising look.

“I’m Princess Ruto,” the blue-faced girl says, heavy emphasis on  _ princess. _ She’s not even facing me. She’s...I honestly don’t know how to think. She’s sort of ugly? Sort of not? Her head is weird and bulbous, and with a twinge of disgust I realise that she doesn’t  _ need _ to face me- she’s staring at me with an eye in the side of her head. That...that’s so gross.

“I’m Link,” I offer, and she sniffs. 

“Are you the farmer’s son?” she says, sounding unimpressed with the idea.

“No,” Zelda says, sitting between me and Talon. “He’s the legendary hero,”

“Yeah, right,” Ruto says dismissively, turning now to look at Zelda and I. “If he’s the hero, who are you, then?”

“I’m Zelda,” she says. “Princess of Hyrule,”

Ruto stares at Zelda’s Kokiri clothing with disdain.

“A princess? You? What are you  _ wearing? _ What kind of princess wears such drab clothing?”

“This one,” Zelda says. “Keep your voice down. The others don’t know,”

“Prove it,” Ruto sniffs. I pull out the shining blue ocarina and show it to her under the table; I hear the clank of Zelda digging through her old jewelry and she slips me the golden diadem she was wearing when I found her. Ruto examines both. “Hmph. I think this might actually be the real deal,”

“It is,” Navi says, alighting on my shoulder. Ruto passes back the instrument and tiara, folding her arms. Her thick silver bracelets catch the light. 

“So, what do you want me to do about it? If you’re really the hero, why are you sitting around in this boring old meeting? I wish I didn’t have to be here,”

“We wanted to meet with you,” Zelda says.

Ruto tilts her head. “Oh?”

“We’re looking for the Spiritual Stones,” I tell her. “We were told you had one,”

She leans back in her chair. “I do have one. But I’m not just going to give it to you,”

“We’re trying to save the remnants of a race that was almost wiped out a week ago,” Zelda says, luckily managing to block out Navi’s hiss of “Hey!”

“Huh? I haven’t heard anything like that,” Ruto says, eyes wide. “Hyrule was attacked?”

“The Kokiri forest,” Zelda says. “Link and I have a deal. He’s going to help me find something I’ve lost- something important. And in return we gather the stones and repair the forest,”

Ruto taps a finger on her own forearm. “I won’t just hand it over,” she says. “But...if you do something for me, I’ll help you,”

“Name your price,” Zelda says immediately, “and we’ll tell you if it’s within our power,”

The Zora thinks, ignoring the talking diplomats beside us. 

“There’s a story in the domain,” she says finally, “about a place where lost things go. If you swim through the caves right to the end, you’ll find everything that’s ever been lost in the water. Any water. It all makes its way back there,”

“That sounds like a kid’s tale,” Navi says. Ruto glares.

“You go with me through the caves, I’ll give you the stone.”

“Even if you don’t find what you’re looking for?” Zelda raises an eyebrow. Ruto scowls.

“I suppose,” she says grudgingly. “Do we have a deal?”

“We have a deal,” Zelda says, reaching across me to shake Ruto’s hand. The blue fins brush across my face and I’m struck by how smooth the fins are- tough but smooth.  "How fast can we leave?"

"Our carriage won't leave for a week," the girl scowls.

"We...I can offer a giant bird as transport," I raise my hand, looking at her.

"Well...I'd better ask Rukain, he's in charge of all this," Ruto says, uncertain. "But if you show him that ocarina he'll trust you, I bet."

"Okay, then," Zelda says firmly. “But keep it quiet. I don’t want the whole of Hyrule knowing that the princess and the hero are gallivanting about. People will start seeing the demon king everywhere,”

“I don’t think he’s back. Normally the domain would be frozen over already if he was,” Ruto says. Zelda pauses.

“That’s a pretty good indicator,” she decides. “I’ll keep an eye out for any stray ice, huh?”

“Fair enough,” Ruto says, leaning back and looking straight at her bodyguard to get his attention. I look across the table to see Malon, leaning her head boredly on the table. She catches my eye and flashes a grin.

_ Are you bored yet? _ she mouths, and I nod. She sniggers, and I turn to Zelda.

"Zelda," I ask, "do you think we can bring Malon along?"

"Definitely not," she says. "We can't drag her away from her father to the Zoran mountains. Besides, I don't think Kaion can lift four people,"

My face falls. I...I quite like Malon. Zelda's own face softens.

"You can go talk to her now, if you want," she says. "Make some friends, play around a bit. Have fun."

She doesn't need to mention the fact that it's been a week since I've actually smiled properly. I take her up on her offer, sliding out of my seat and looping around the table, stopping beside Malon.

"We don’t have to stay here, right? You wanna teach me what games Hylian kids play?" I ask. She beams, eyes sparking.

"For sure!" she says, grabbing my hand, and there's so much joy in her voice that I can't help but smile with her.


	24. Hoofbeats, Heartbeats

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Saria, Mido and Kiri reach Lochmede, where Kiri proves herself less than agreeable to their agenda. Meanwhile, back at the (literal) ranch, Link instead spends his time learning to ride a horse with Malon.

**[/]{INTERLUDE-SARIA}[\\]**

The city of Lochmede is bigger than she thought it would be. A lot bigger. 

“Now we just have to ask if anyone’s seen them,” Kiri said, fluttering closer to a brazier someone had burning. Mido joined her, presenting chilled fingers to the flame in a hope that they would warm quickly. Saria, rather than heading to the fire, made her way towards the owner of it.

“Whoa, what happened to you two?” the rugged woman said, planting her hands on broad hips. Saria didn’t even have it in her to be astounded that she was talking to a grown-up.

“Have you seen my friend?” Saria asked- or tried to ask, anyway. Her voice was barely there, raspy with disuse, and the woman’s deep brown eyes widened. 

“Here,” she said, turning around and grabbing a tankard, thrusting it into Saria’s hands. “Drink this, you sound like you’ve eaten sand,”

Saria took a sip of the bitter-tasting liquid and grimaced, swallowing just enough to make her feel a little less like she’d eaten a whole Wolfos. She handed back the tankard and the woman handed it straight to Mido, who did the same.

“Have you seen my friend?” Saria asked, while Kiri fluttered closer to the tankard, apparently trying to figure out what was in it. “He’s...he’s short, blonde, dresses in green with a pointy hat.”

The woman raised an eyebrow.

“Now that could be anyone’s friend, dear,” she said. “Can you give me any more detail?”

“He’d have been injured,” Mido said. “Probably with a girl, with long blonde hair. She was wearing green as well. They had a fairy with them as well,”

The woman hesitated. “I don’t think I’ve seen them, I’m sorry. But...if someone’s seen them, there’s a good chance they stuck out, according to your description. If you ask around, someone ought to remember them,”

“Thank you,” Saria said, turning around.

“Where are your parents?” the woman asked.

“That would be me,” Kiri said, and Mido gave her a look that was half shock, half disgust. The woman gave Kiri an appraising look.

“The other one yours as well, then?” she asked, sounding wary. “I’ll have you know, we don’t take kindly to your folk leaving changelings. If you’re here to steal children…”

“What?” Saria said, and Kiri flared red.

“Of course not!” she snapped. “Saria is all I need. She just wants her friend back,”

The woman crossed her arms. “I’ll be telling the Lady Seres that you’re here. If any changelings appear we’ll know exactly who left them,”

Kiri flinched sharply when the woman mentioned telling, bristling angrily. “Fine. But I’m not going to touch your stupid Hylian children.”

“Calm down, Kiri,” Mido said, handing the woman back her tankard. “Don’t be such a cow,”

“Says you,” Kiri hissed at him. “Hypocrite. I can’t believe you’re even here,”

“Shut up, Kiri,” murmured Saria. “Thank you,” she added, for the woman, who nodded. She still looked suspicious of Kiri.

“Be careful, hm?”

“Sure,” Mido said, turning away and looking back at Saria. “Do we just...ask around?”

Saria scowled, looking around. How hard could he  _ possibly _ be to find? It was just Link! Why hadn’t he come back to them by himself? She  _ knew _ Link, and if it was up to him he’d already be back in the forest. So why wasn’t he?

“You’re such a liar, Mido,” Kiri said bitterly, once the woman was out of earshot. “Why are you here? It’s sure as hell not to rescue Link,”

Mido looked stung, and Saria whirled to look at Kiri.

“What is your  _ problem _ ?” she demanded, glaring at her fairy. “Back off! He’s  _ helping _ us, Kiri!”

Her voice cracked a little on  _ helping _ and she hated it. Kiri just glared at Mido. 

“He’s going to get you killed, Saria,” the fairy spat. “I’m not going to let him drag you around looking for someone he doesn’t even like just to impress you,”

“Wh- _ Kiri! _ If anything, I’m the one dragging  _ him _ around!” Saria said. “Are you even listening to yourself?”

“He got Neri killed! There’s nothing stopping him from doing it to you!”

There was a stunned silence, during which Mido’s face went abruptly wooden and he kept moving his arms, as if not sure where to put them.

“You’re such a bitch,” Saria choked out, looking at Mido. Neri was burning with a fiery light. 

“Look at him. He knows it’s true!”

“Mido? Talk to me,” Saria said nudging him, but he just glared hatefully at Kiri as if he’d like nothing better than to crush her between his boot and the ground. Eventually he seemed to realise he was standing in people’s way, and he swiftly jerked into motion to sit down against a building, knees pulled to his chest.

Saria rounded on Kiri. “What brought this on? You can’t say things like that!”

“Link is probably  _ dead, _ ” growled Kiri. “The sooner you see that, the better. You’re not safe out here,”

“I don’t care,” Saria hissed back. 

“You didn’t see them leaving the woods,” Kiri retorted. “I went and talked to that Scrub who did. He said that Navi put Zelda’s eye out, and that Link’s leg was broken and that Zelda smashed his head in with a rock. He’s dead and I won’t let you risk your life for him a moment longer,”

Saria wasn’t altogether surprised to feel the bite of her tears freezing on her cheeks.

“Damn you, Kiri,” she whispered. “He’s not dead. I don’t care what you think. I’m not going home until I find him,”

“And how will you do that, huh?” Kiri challenged. “Hyrule is enormous! You’ll never find him!”

“I’ll just have to ask this Seres lady, if she’s in charge,” Saria said. Kiri grabbed Saria’s ear and yanked, Saria yelping in response.

“You will  _ not! _ ” she snarled, and Saria all but wrenched the fairy’s vice grip from the point of her ear.

“Get off me!” she said, unaware of the scene they were causing. “You can’t stop me!”

“I can and I will!” Kiri shouted back, tiny hands burning with white fire. “You are going back to the woods with me right now!”

“You can’t- you can’t just make me abandon him!”

“Everyone is abandoned at some point,” Kiri said sharply. “It’s better for you to be on the right end of it,”

Saria took a step back, glaring daggers.

“Go to hell, Kiri,” she said flatly. “Either come with us or go back to the woods by yourself.”

“Mido will get you killed, if you don’t do it yourself,” Kiri cried.

“He needs this as much as I do,” Saria closed her eyes. “I won’t just sit in the woods and wallow in my grief, and I won’t let Mido do that either. I’m going to find him, Kiri. Say what you want,”

Saria turned on her heel and went to join Mido, trying to coax him to his feet. Kiri, grinding her teeth, followed with a bitter fear in her eyes.

**[/]{END OF INTERLUDE}[\\]**

The wind bites at us as I cling to the horse’s back, trying not to fall off at the thumping pace Malon has set. Riding is...harder than I thought it would be. We’re moving very slowly- perhaps Malon gets that I’m nervous, because I am. Slowly, slowly, we work our way up to faster paces. Malon’s horse is far too big for her- she says that that the skittish-looking foal who I’ve taken a liking to will be a beautiful horse to ride, but she also said something about her knees not being closed so she shouldn’t be ridden yet. Instead we’re both on the shortest stallions the Lons own- mine is a little gray one who seems to be a little frustrated by how slow we’re going. When we work our way up to a trot I feel shaken about, a little nervous. Maybe I ought to slow down, I decide, so I pull back on the reins.

And...he doesn’t slow down. I cling a little more nervously and pull back again, and in direct defiance he speeds up.

“Malon! How do I make him stop!” I shout, holding on for dear life. She looks at me, alarmed.

“Pull back on the reins!”

“ _ I am! _ ”

“Stop squeezing his belly!” she yells, and I can quite honestly hear the silence in my head punctuated only by  _ oh. _ Sure enough, I unwrap my limbs from around his gut and pull back on the reins. He stops.

“Don’t do that!” she chastises me. “You scared the hell out of me!”

“Sorry,” I say. 

“Wanna try again?”

“Gimme a minute,”

By the time Zelda rides out to join us in the late afternoon- with perfect poise, dammit- I’m managing to control a galloping horse.

“How’s the boring stuff going?” I ask her as she rides up beside me. Navi is sitting in her hair, holding onto her hairband like her own set of reins.

“Quite well. Lon Lon’s going to get their red ice in exchange for certain harvests having a share cut out for the Zora,”

“Is that a good deal?”

“Well, Lon Lon is located in some of the most fertile land in Hyrule. The only place that’s better is the Lost Woods- and I’m pretty sure there was magic helping you along in there. They should be able to grow the extra crops with no problems,”

“You wanna try jumping?” Malon yells, riding up to me. “Oh, there’s two of ya now,”

“I’d love to,” I say, and Malon grins. 

“Well, hurry up- the fences are this way,”

“Ruto says she’ll be ready by sundown!” Zelda yells after us, and I offer her a thumbs up.

“Don’t do anything too dangerous!” Navi shouts.

“I won’t!” I assure her as I follow after Malon, the horse beneath me eager to catch up. We spend the afternoon jumping a set of clearly handmade fences Malon’s rigged up. Each landing rattles my teeth in my skull but I can’t deny that it’s fun, especially as I get used to it and shift in the stirrups to soften each landing.

When the sky is a deep orange Malon sighs.

“I s’pose you’d better get back, fairy-boy,” she says regretfully, “or straw-head will throw a fit,”

“Why do you call her that?” I ask, trotting beside her.

“‘Cause her hair’s like straw,” Malon says obviously.

“Well, yeah,” I admit, “but why not just call her Zelda?”

“‘Cause names are hard but I’ll always look at her and think  _ hey her hair looks like straw, _ and remember what to call her,”

“You won’t just...remember what she looks like?”

Malon scowls. “People keep changin’ the way they look and it’s hard to remember. But, you wear a fairy hat and have a fairy friend and I’ll know you’re fairy boy. She has straw hair, so I’ll remember that.”

That’s...certainly an odd way of doing it. Makes sense, I guess. I’m awful with faces. Takes me like a week to remember what people actually look like for any length of time. She’s just...averting the problem entirely, in an extremely roundabout way.

We ride in silence for a while before Malon abruptly slows down her horse, and I fumble to do the same.

“What’s wrong?” I ask her. She hesitates.

“Well,” she says haltingly, “daddy won’t let me have any friends who are boys. He reckons I’m not ladylike enough, but that’s just ‘cause he’s been told that by all the cranky old ladies in town. Anyway, I was wonderin’...would you watch the sunset with me?”

“What?” I ask, astonished. She flushes, her face clashing awkwardly with her hair.

“Ya don’t have to! But I was just wonderin’. It’s terribly romantic and I prolly won’t get the chance to do it again ‘til I’m old and fat and married. Please?”

I hesitate.

“Okay,” I say, unsure. Malon beams.

“Aw, thank you,” she says, leaning forward in her saddle. She looks up at the orange of the sky, and I follow her gaze. The moon is visible despite the fact it’s not dark, and I study the shapes I can see on it curiously. “‘s like fire, isn’t it?”

I must flinch slightly, because Malon leans towards me with concern in her eyes. “What, ya don’t like fire?”

“Not particularly,” I mutter, throat feeling slightly tight at the mental image of the sky on fire. I think she gets the gist.

“I get that, I guess. I don’t like storms, myself.”

She studies me for a moment. “Tell ya what; don’t look at the orange. Look back a little at the pinks and purples and blues. They’re pretty too,”

I do what she says, admiring the view. It may be prettier from Kaion’s back, but there’s still something incredible about this view unblocked by trees, setting the sky aflame in all its glory. Our horses are practically touching sides, our boots bumping together in the stirrups as we sit there.

“...I admit, this is takin’ longer than I thought it was gonna,” Malon says after a while. I laugh.

“I didn’t want to say anything,” I say. Malon shrugs.

“Still. I’m gonna do this even if it’s just once.”

Slowly, the sky fades from amber to pink to violet to blue, and finally to black. Malon leads the way back to the house slowly, her horse carefully picking its way along the path in the darkness.

“Someday I wanna see those stars up close,” she says quietly. “Fluff once told me that stars were just the souls of the dead shining through the Twilight Realm, but I don’t think that’s true. Stars aren’t souls. They’re something more. One day I’m going to go up there and see them for myself,”

I bite my lip.

“I...I don’t know about seeing them right up close, but I can get you closer than just down here on the ground,”

“Really?” Malon says. “Whatcha gonna do? Shoot me from a cannon?”

“No,” I say. “I...have a friend. His name’s Kaion. He’s a loftwing,”

“Wait,” she says. “Ain’t they those things from the old hero tales? The big birds?”

“Yep,”

She stares at me.

“Say, that hat of yours is mighty pointy…”

“So it is,” I say awkwardly. There’s a short silence.

“That’s cool. So, ya reckon your bird buddy will let me have a fly?”

“He should. He seems pretty docile,”

“Well, that’s real lovely of ya,” Malon beams, her teeth standing out eerily in the darkness. “I’ll take you up on that,”

We put the horses in the stable and walk down the path to Malon’s house, where a lantern is burning and Talon, Zelda and Ruto stand.

“Malon! Where’ve you been?”

“Sorry, daddy,” Malon says. “Rode further than I thought we did. Took us a while to get back,”

Talon huffs. “Don’t do that again, hear?”

“I won’t, daddy,”

“You kept us waiting, Link,” Ruto says primly. “Are we to fly through the night?”

“Kaion won’t fly at night, anyway,” Zelda sighs. “I thought if we left this afternoon we might cover some ground, but we’ve no hope of getting him airborne now,”

I suddenly think of Malon’s wanting to fly.

“Mr. Lon,” I begin.

“Talon,”

“Talon, could we borrow your daughter for a few days?”

“Link!” hisses Zelda, and Talon frowns.

“What?”

“We’re going to the Zora’s Domain for a day or two, to do something for Princess Ruto,”

“So that’s why she’s hanging around,” Talon says. “Why’d you want Malon along?”

“I...I think, after what she did yesterday, that maybe she feels a little cooped up here,” I offer, hoping I’m not overstepping my bounds. “She’d be safe and everything- Zelda’s all morally upstanding and stuff and she’s really good at magic, so she could fight off anything, really. And we’d be surrounded by Zora who’d look out for us because Ruto’s with us. Please?”

“Please, daddy?” adds Malon, looking like she’s about to trip over herself in excitement and longing. “I know I’m grounded but please? I promise, I’m not gonna do anything bad or let the cows out again. Please?”

Talon and Zelda have identical looks of consternation on their faces; I can tell Zelda’s not pleased I’ve involved Malon in this but I know she’d really love the adventure of travelling through the Zora caves, looking for a treasure horde. She seems like a romanticist, the kind who spends their days reading heroic stories and wishing they could live them.

“You’d look after her properly?” Talon says grudgingly. “Feed her right, make sure she sleeps properly, make sure she don’t run off?”

“Of course, Talon,” I say, feeling a little like a cheat for using his first name, like I’m manipulating him with it.

“I’d make sure she’s perfectly safe, sir,” Zelda says. “You wouldn’t have to worry,”

He sighs. “It’s true she don’t get out much. Maybe this’d be good for her?”

“It would!” Malon almost barks. “Really!”

Talon crosses his arms.

“Fine. But you have five days at the most. If she’s not back by then I’ll have the knights on you, and they’ll know where to find you,”

“Would it help if we left you some of our valuables so you’d know we’d have to come back for them?” Zelda offers. Talon nods.

“That’d be mighty reassurin’,”

Zelda opens her pouch, and gestures for me to do the same. Talon ends up holding Zelda’s crown, the Spiritual Stone, and the ocarina.

“These are...incredibly valuable, sir, so  _ please, _ don’t lose them or sell them or anything,” Zelda says anxiously.

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Talon says. He squints at the tiara. “This looks familiar, you know,”

“Thank you  _ so much, _ daddy,” Malon breathes. Then she suddenly squeals, jumping up and down. “ _ I get to see the Zora’s Domain! _ ”

“I particularly love how I wasn’t asked about this,” Ruto grunts.

“Right. Uh, can Malon come?” I ask her. 

“As long as she helps,”

“I’ll help with  _ whatever ya want, _ ” Malon promises, awe in her voice. “Wow!”

“We’ll leave in the morning,” Zelda says.

“You’d better pack a bag, Malon,” Talon says, and Malon’s gone in a flash of red hair. “ _ With dresses!” _ he shouts after her.

“I ain’t wearin’ no dress!” she yells back gleefully. “I got a whole new place to explore!”


	25. Pretenses

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Link and Zelda reach the Zora's Domain, although things back at home aren't alright.

 

As it turns out, Zelda was right. Kaion can’t carry four people. We don’t even all fit on his back. Malon manages to get her dad to let us take the two horses we rode yesterday though- Zelda and Malon, the most confident riders, gallop below Ruto, Navi and I on Kaion. Ruto can’t ride at all, and I didn’t really want to leave Zelda in charge of my loftwing. Malon seems to be having the time of her life, her hair done up out of her face, moving fluidly in time with her horse. Zelda, meanwhile, is almost rigid in the saddle, elbows behind her and back concave, shifting in repetitive movements in the stirrups. 

“I’m going to check in with them,” Navi says, climbing up Kaion’s neck and dropping herself off the side, diving until she’s an indistinguishable blue spot on Zelda’s shoulder. I turn my head to check on Ruto, who unlike Zelda seems to be extremely clingy when flying. Her arms a looped tightly around my chest, her fins flapping in the wind.

“You holding up?” I ask her, almost shouting to be heard. She gives a quick nod.

“I’m not sure I like travelling like this,” she says, “but it is definitely faster than the carriage full of water that I normally have to take when travelling,”

“Okay then!”

I look down and see Zelda swinging a beckoning arm; I lean forward and Kaion obeys seamlessly, swooping down to fall in beside her with only the distance of his wings between us. Each wingbeat gusts back Zelda’s hair. “Yeah?”

“We’re thinking of stopping for lunch soon!” she shouts. “That okay with you two?”

“Quite,” Ruto says, and I offer a thumbs up.

“Let us know when you stop, ‘kay?”

“Will do,”

I spur Kaion upwards again, Ruto clinging even tighter in response to the incline. I suppose a creature of the water isn’t really made to fly, so she mustn’t be very comfortable. 

“Do you want to slow down?” I ask her gently. She nods tightly, and I pull back on Kaion’s halter, and he immediately slows at the slightest tug. “Is that better?”

“Yes,” she says breathily, releasing her vice grip slightly. “Thank you,”

“Thanks for agreeing to do this,” I say. “You’re helping so much,”

“Convincing Rukain to let me go was a trouble I’d rather not repeat,” she grumbles, “but if you help me find what  _ I’m _ looking for then I suppose I might as well help you out with the stones. What do you even need them for?”

“Zelda says they can grant wishes if you have all three of them,” I reply. “She read a bunch of other stuff but I think she’s still scheming with it, because she hasn’t told me yet. I want to use them to repair the Kokiri forest,”

“Are you a Kokiri?” Ruto asks interestedly, and having to say  _ no _ pains me.

“Almost. Not quite,” I say instead. She looks unconvinced but luckily doesn’t press the issue.

“That’s a pretty... _ noble _ cause,” she says instead. “I think that’s very brave,”

“Thanks,” I mutter back, scanning below. 

“No, really,” Ruto protests. “I think that’s positively admirable. 

“Uh, thanks,” I say absently. She flicks my ear. “Ow!”

“When a Zora compliments you they mean it!” she says angrily. “Don’t be such a jerk about it!”

“Okay! Sorry, sorry! Thanks!”

A temperamental huff. “Good.”

More silence. I don’t think I’ve met someone this socially awkward, ever. 

“You okay there?” I ask her, and she scowls.

“I’m fine,” she says,

“Okay,”

“Don’t be such a jerk!” she swats my arm.

“Ow! All I did was say okay!” I protest. She smoulders.

“It’s the  _ way _ you said it,” she snaps. 

“I said it normally!” I hiss. 

“No, you said it all insolent-like,” she insists. “ _ Okaaaaay, _ ”

“That’s not how I said it!” I plead. She slaps me again.

“Are you saying I’m a liar?” she retorts angrily?

“ _ No! _ ” Gah, what is her issue?

“‘Cause it sounds like you are!”

“What’s with you?” I ask pleadingly. She scowls again.

“Nothing!”

“Actual nothing or ‘nothing’ meaning ‘I’m about to be buried in a maelstrom of ranting’?”

“It’s just that-”

“The second one, clearly,”

“-you’re the  _ legendary hero _ and you’re acting like- like such a fool!”

“Hey, slow down there with the name calling, you might hurt my feelings,”

“-and I mean I’m missing like half of my Hyrule trip because of you but your princess down there managed to convince Rukain which is good enough for me but really-”

I hope I’m not going to be tested on this speech afterwards. Luckily, we’re interrupted by Navi, fighting her way through the buffeting wind Kaion is kicking up and landing heavily on his neck.

“Zelda’s been trying to get your attention for like the last ten minutes. We’re stopping for lunch,”

“Best news I’ve heard all day,” I grunt, steering Kaion downwards to land beside the girls dismounting their horses.

**[/]{INTERLUDE-TIMI}[\\]**

Fado was walking, at least.

At first, she had simply fallen repeatedly on her shaking legs that transitioned to bone partway down, skin blackened and melting away to reveal a dull white frame. She had wept for hours when she had been calmed enough to stop screaming, and Timi couldn’t help but ache to block his ears and hide away from the sound. Pails of the pondwater Kiri had blessed before she had left had been carried back and forth for days, the flow of injured being lugged on makeshift stretchers into the infirmary dwindling and finally halting. Several Kokiri were still being kept asleep by the fairies who had been appointed as healers. Among the worst injured was Soti- Timi had no idea how he would ever even walk again with the lower part of his left leg charred so badly they’d had to cut it away- Mila, who had been found buried under a collapsed house, and one Kokiri that, to the horror of pretty much everyone, nobody had been able to put a name to due to the fact that she had been burned so badly as to be unrecognizable. There were at least three fairies who had been positively disgusted with themselves for hoping that she  _ wasn’t  _ their Kokiri, and the prospects for the nameless girl were grim anyway.

Epheremelda dodged out of the way as Fado collapsed again into Somi’s waiting grip, like some twisted trust exercise where Fado hadn’t actually meant to fall. She had been having trouble moving the parts of her body that were now bone, and she had only recently begun to regain sight in her glowing amber eye.

“I can’t feel it,” she mumbled for the hundredth time, looking at her bone leg. “I almost feel that it’s there but then I forget it is and I forget how to move it,”

“You can do it,” Epheremelda soothed. She’d ended up taking charge of most of the fairies since Neri’s death and Kiri’s departure- the job didn’t suit her, and she found herself buried between the fairies who were inconsolable at the deaths of their charges and the fairies who wanted to chase the Lizalfos who had done this and kill them all. Some of the ones who were closer to their right mind had demanded the aid of a Great Fairy, to rain hellfire down upon those who had killed their friends and family. Epheremelda was drained and returned to Timi’s corner of the makeshift tent-dormitory with weary eyes that looked as though she wished she could shed tears. Timi hated seeing her so downtrodden- she was usually such an optimistic person, and it was painful to see that dragged away from her.

“Hey, Timi,” someone called from the doorway, and the redhead turned to look at them. “Can we have your help out here? We need an extra pair of hands to hold the poles still while we lash them together,”

Timi stood and followed the taller Kokiri out of the sort-of marquee of burnt branches and blankets that had been roughly stitched together- it kept the snow out, mostly, although sometimes cold water would slide its way through the stitching to land on a Kokiri below who probably hadn’t been asleep anyway. 

The houses the Kokiri lived in had generally been carved out of stumps that had been there for as long as anyone could remember, and several of Timi’s stories had been speculation on their origins. Now, however, several of those stumps had been burned away entirely, and others were left as jagged black shapes that were missing half of the wood. Rebuilding had started on the houses the day before and was still in early stages, and mostly consisted of attempting to make pole-like scaffolding around the outsides so they could start from the bottom and work their way up. Timi had no idea how they were planning to repair the enormous holes and gaps in the buildings, although he had heard mention of mimicking the log-based architecture used in the Deku Palace. He suddenly wondered how the Deku were faring. The last he had seen of them, three quarters of them had been ill and poisoned. Maybe they ought to check that out again. The forest folk ought to look out for eachother, now that the Great Deku Tree wasn’t there to do it for them.

“Timi, move your hand,” 

He pulled his hand away and studied the way the poles were tightly bound together. His writer’s mind immediately called to hand hundreds of metaphors about tying things together, about restricting freedom, but that wasn’t what he was seeing. The two poles were tied together to provide support, even if their natural state was to be independent. He supposed that there was some sort of deeper meaning in that. He didn’t much care what it was.

**[/]{INTERLUDE-VOLGA}[\\]**

Two months. Two months, two weeks, and one day. That was exactly how long it had been since Impa had failed to return to the palace and exactly how long it had been since Volga had allowed himself to think about it. It was inevitable, though. He glared at the soldiers who were training before him. 

“If you think you would ever defeat a Moblin with that slow a strike you are  _ wrong! _ ” he called, and many of the soldiers lowered their spears in defeat. “Have you grown slack? Fight with some dignity!”

They went back to their irritatingly rhythmic thrusting of the spear, striking at the mannequins with no energy.

“You’re working them too hard,” came a voice behind him, and Volga turned to see the third and final of the Hyrulean generals.

“I am working them as hard as they need to be worked,” he said gruffly, turning away from her. 

“I was including you in ‘them’, by the way,” she added.

“They may be up to your standards but they certainly are not up to mine,” he muttered. “You look after your mages and I will take care of the infantry,”

“Volga…” the woman hesitated, and he rounded on her.

“ _ What, _ Cia?” he asked angrily, professionalism fleeing to the wind with the outburst. Several of the soldiers turned to look.

“You’re going to work yourself to the bone,” she said, and her voice was every bit as weary as she looked. “Please,”

“Do not pretend you aren’t doing it too,” he grunted. “I haven’t seen you sleep for more than three hours in the last two months,”

“I haven’t seen you sleep at all,” she countered.

“Don’t need to,” he turned away even further, and his withering glare sent the soldiers who had been watching the argument scrambling for their spears once again. 

“Volga, please,” Cia said eventually. “You can’t just keep ignoring me,”

“I-I’m not,” he said, surprised. She fixed him with a gimlet glare.

“I still haven’t gotten the letter,” she said, sounding pained. “Whose duty is  _ that _ now? Do I have to send you a letter? Do you have to send me one? Is there any point, aside from formality? We both know that you were as close a thing to family Impa had,”

“Cia, not now,” he said jerkily, striding forward and grabbing one of the spears off the rack, moving to fall in with the training soldiers. A hand wrapped around his arm and pulled him back.

“If not now, then when?” she whispered, and Volga looked back at the soldiers, staring for a time before letting out a long sigh.

“Keep training,” he told the men, turning on his heel and striding up towards the castle, throwing the spear to one side. It bounced end-to-end three times before coming to a rest, the metal glinting against the grass. A surprised Cia hurried after Volga, catching up to him as he stalked towards the office that had been shared between the three generals but now harboured a thick layer of dust. He shoved the door open and moved to the desk, snatching up a quill, a piece of parchment, and an ink bottle, which shattered in his grasp as he made to open it. He harshly jabbed the quill into the puddle and scrawled a missing in service to the crown notice, thrusting it at Cia.

“There. Now I’ve done my duty,” he said, trying to ignore the tightness in his throat. Cia held the note in shaking hands, eyes glinting with what was either fury or despair, and he stared at her.

“You’re such a brute,” she snapped, grief and anger fighting in her voice to be heard. “Your sword-sister might well be dead and this is how you act? You’re normally so well-mannered!”

“She must have been a good influence on me then,” he said softly. “Cia, the princess is missing as well. We don’t- I  _ can’t _ worry about Impa. Please. Don’t make me… don’t make me worry about her. We have to trust that she can handle herself,”

“I know she can handle herself,” Cia looked away, teeth gritted. “The real question is why she’s not back here yet. If she was okay, her and the princess would be back here safe and sound. But Kaepora Gaebora brought news of Zelda alone. Where’s Impa?”

“You don’t think I’ve asked myself that already?” Volga said, looking out the window. “I don’t know, okay? I don’t know,”

**[/]{END OF INTERLUDE}[\\]**

We reach the Zoran mountains and are slowed significantly- while Ruto and I can go as the Loftwing flies, Malon and Zelda have to pick their way along the path made for the carriages and carts that travel to and fro the city. It takes us a further few hours to reach said city, and we’re forced to enter on foot as it’s apparently located within an enormous cavern in the mountains. And  _ wow,  _ this place is huge.

“It’s just me, princess Ruto,” the Zora calls to one of the guards, who squints down in surprise. “I’ve found the legendary hero, the princess of Hyrule, and some farm girl,”

“Hey,” Malon protests. 

“ _ Yes, _ Rukain knows I’m here. Can you just let us in?” Ruto snaps, frustrated. The guard lowers his weapon and allows us to pass, unmasking the sights of the cavern. Twisting, rocky paths are everywhere, surrounding an enormous central pool that is so deep that I can see the water fading to black easily. Several waterfalls pour from what appears to be some vast meeting point for dozens of underground rivers. Light pours in from above- perhaps this was once a volcano? There’s a word for it, right? A caldera, I think Timi called them. Nayru only knows where he gets his dumb words from.

“Impressive, right?” Ruto says smugly, and I nod dumbly. Ruto takes a few running steps forwards and throws herself into the water, diving under it and disappearing.

“Are we meant to just stand around waitin’ for her? What are we meant to be doin’?” Malon asks.

“Well, I don’t know my way around, and I doubt any of you do,” Zelda says.

“Haven’t the foggiest,” Navi says, fluttering higher to get a better view. “I say we wait,”

A few minutes later, Ruto surfaces again. “You’ve got permission to visit my father. He’ll be weird. The guards said they wouldn’t let you in so I told him you were a dashing hero who had swept me off my feet. They’re letting you in now,”

“I am...unsurprisingly not comfortable with that,” Navi says, looking as unsurprised as her words. 

“Come on,” Ruto gracefully pushes herself out of the water and leads us along one of the stone paths. Between the smoothness of the path and the water Ruto is dripping everywhere, the three of us are sliding around like crazy. She leads us into an elevated chamber with a smaller pool but a pretty spectacular- if short- waterfall spraying mist everywhere. We’re drenched in seconds, hair plastered to our faces. A good impression to make on the Zora king, for sure. 

“Father!” shrieks Ruto, and out of the pool surges a gargantuan creature entirely unlike the thin, ethereal Zora we met in Lon Lon. The man is  _ huge. _ He somehow twists out of the water to seat himself on an enormous rock that I think is meant to be a throne of some sort, compensating for his incredible bulk. Zelda, for once in her life is speechless. “Hello, father!” Ruto chimes. “I have some friends here. I thought I should bring them to meet you and everything since they’re the legendary hero and the princess of Hyrule,”

“Are you feeling forgotten yet, Malon?” Navi hisses. “I am,”

“I was feelin’ forgotten already,” Malon mutters back grumpily. 

“The legendary hero?” the Zora king says interestedly, his voice booming off the rock walls.

“Yes,” Ruto says. “I’ve organised a trial of merit already, so if-”

“Now, young man,” the huge Zora squints at me and I stiffen, trying to look the part of a hero in my sodden clothes and drenched hair. “I appreciate that you are entranced by my daughter’s beauty, but it would be entirely unfitting for her to pursue a suitor of another race-”

I think Navi and I simultaneously choke on our own spit.

“That’s not-!” I protest, but Ruto smoothly interrupts.

“No, no I lied about that,” she says. “The guards wouldn’t believe me when I told them he was the legendary hero,”

“Oh,” says the Zora king, sounding more disappointed than he should given that he was halfway through warding me away from his daughter.

“Yes, so that’s all I had to say. With your permission I’ll take them to the caves,” Ruto says.

“Yes, yes,” her father says, apparently distracted by a stray thought . “Whatever you want, dearest,”

“Thank you, father!” Ruto chimes, turning around. “Come on, you two. You need adventuring stuff or anything? I’ve never been adventuring before,”

“We’ll need a light source, and some other things,” Zelda says.

“This is so damn exciting!” Malon hisses.

“It gets less exciting when the giant spiders get involved,” I tell her grimly, and she recoils.

“Giant spiders?”

“Come  _ on, _ ” Ruto whines, dragging us after her. “I want to go explore the caves! We have to go find that trove!”

Zelda, Malon, Navi and I watch her tear off down the path.

“D’you get the sense she’s not telling us something?” Navi asks anxiously. I snicker.

“Navi, when has anyone ever told you and I the full story?” I ask, striding after the Zora girl. “Never, that’s when,”

“Stop being so right,” Navi grunts. “It’s depressing,"


	26. The Grand Adventures of the Affronted Princess Club

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The caves under Jabuzor aren't particularly welcoming to visitors, and it will take more than just light to find their way through.

“Malon, stop swinging the lantern,”

The lantern stops swinging for about ten seconds before it starts moving again, light flickering off the walls in bizarre ways.

“Malon, stop swinging the lantern.”

Again, it stops for a moment before Malon starts swinging it again.

“Give that here,” Ruto snaps, yanking the lantern out of her grasp. Malon looks wounded as Ruto strides ahead, broad webbed feet slapping against the wet rock underfoot. Little rivulets of water run across the pebbles, catching the lantern’s light and looking like glowing trails of sap twisting across the cave. It’s dark, echoing and eerie. And Malon is loving it.

“You think there’ll be Keese in here?” she asks excitedly, holding the coral morningstar she pilfered from the shop aloft. I think Zelda paid for it, but Malon basically saw it, squealed, grabbed it and ran off. I’m not sure if she can actually use it and I doubt it.

“Potentially,” Zelda says.

“Yes!” she cheers. “Y’all are the best!”

“ _ Y’all _ are noisy,” Ruto grunts, stepping over a larger rock. The water is rising slightly, lapping at the edges of my boots.

“Should we take our boots off?” I ask Zelda. She hesitates.

“On one hand, the water will ruin the leather,” she says, “but on the other, we don’t want to step on something dangerous while barefoot,”

“There’s nothing really down here that you’d step on that wouldn’t move out of the way first,” Ruto says. “Feel free to take off your shoes if you don’t want them damaged,”

“There’s no stonefish or anything?” Navi asks anxiously. Ruto blinks.

“Stonefish are saltwater fish,” she says flatly. “Where did you learn about your fish?”

Navi flushes dark blue and I instantly know that the answer is one of her fairy friends. Probably Ciela, knowing that Ciela is one of the few fairies who harken from the ocean rather than the Great Deku Tree.

“One of the fairies back in the forest told me about them,” she says. “I didn’t realise there were different kinds of water,”

“Someone’s never been to the ocean,” Zelda snorts, removing her shoes. “You try drinking ocean water and tell me all water is the same.”

I reach down and pull off my boots, shoving them in my pouch.

“Ooh,” Malon says. “What happened to your leg, fairy boy?”

She’s eyeing off the kink in the bone where the strut fell on it, and I grimace.

“Got squished under a giant wooden pole,” I say as nonchalantly as I can, and Ruto winces at the same time as Malon looks interested. She pulls off her boots and shows me her left foot, which has three rather crooked toes.

“I got stepped on by a horse,” she says proudly.

I snigger and tug aside my hair, showing a dent-like scar above my ear. “Fell out of a tree,”

“Got shoved out of a tree,” Navi corrects. Malon tugs up her sleeve to show an old gash.

“Fell on a pitchfork,”

“Swung into a branch,”

“Kicked by a mule,”

“Can you be quiet?” Zelda hisses, and Malon and I shut up. She slowly eyes me, a mischievous grin tweaking at the edge of her lips, and we dissolve into giggles.

“I had expected the legendary hero to be more mature,” Ruto sniffs.

“I’d expected the Zora princess to be less of a hog,” Malon retorts, and Ruto flushes and stutters in indignation.

“I am  _ not _ a hog!” she snaps back, the smug drawl gone from her voice. Malon puts two fingers at the corner of her mouth like tusks and  _ oinks. _ Ruto glares at her. “Listen here, you foolish-”

Malon oinks again, bursts into giggles, and charges ahead down the tunnel, ducking under Ruto’s furious swipe. Zelda lets out a long-suffering sigh.

“I’m surrounded by imbeciles,” she groans, kneading her eyes as if she’s exhausted.

“Whoa, what’s that?” Navi says suddenly, pointing behind Zelda. We all whirl, alarmed, until Navi says “Oh my, it’s a mirror! A lot of mirrors! Zelda’s surrounded by mirrors!”

It takes me a moment to get it but I burst into sniggers when I do, having to dodge  _ Zelda’s _ furious swipe and take off after Malon, laughter echoing off the walls. Behind me, Ruto and Zelda band together in some sort of Affronted Princess club, pursuing us with loud splashes. I catch up to Malon, who winks at me conspiratorially and grabs my hand, dragging me ahead.

“Straw-head’s gonna throw a fit!” she giggles triumphantly.

“I know,” I hiss back, unable to stop my grin. Navi careens after us, lighting the cave ahead as we splash through the water, and her laughter is something I haven’t heard in a while and it makes me smile.

When the water is up to our waists, though, we stop to wait for the others, and Ruto purses her lips. 

“I don’t remember it getting this high,” she says. “I don’t want to stop, though,”

“Can you guys swim?” Zelda says.

“Sure,” Malon says.

“Sort of?” I offer.

“Nope,” Navi grunts.

“...Excellent,” Zelda replies after a while.

“We can keep going,” Ruto says stubbornly. “If the water gets too high then I guess we can turn around, but for now you’re fine,”

Zelda doesn’t seem to see the value in arguing, holding the lantern aloft so it’s not extinguished by the slowly rising water. Malon seems slightly less exuberant, no longer holding her morningstar aloft like it’s a pennant, the ends of her hair thin and dripping with water. Navi is practically hugging the roof of the cave as we venture onwards. At one stage I slip on the mossy stone underfoot and plunge into the water, dragging myself up again and coughing.

“Are you okay?” Zelda asks.

“Walk much?” Malon jokes, and for some reason I like her question better. We carry on.

I stop when Navi utters a noise of surprise. “The cave ends!” she says. Ruto shakes her head. 

“Surely not,” she says, crouching and ducking under the water. A trickle of apprehension makes itself known as she stays under for a time, eventually surfacing with her hands covered in moss. “There’s a gap under here, and the water isn’t up to the ceiling on the opposite side,”

Zelda looks nervous, for the first time. “Are you sure we can fit through? And that we won’t drown?”

“It’s only a short dive,” Ruto shakes her head. “You’ll be fine. I’ll guide each of you under.”

“I’ll go first,” Malon says boldly.

“I’d rather Link or I did,” Zelda says suddenly. “Whoever it is will be left alone on the other side- we don’t know if there are creatures in here but whoever’s left alone should be able to fight,”

“I can fight,” Malon says sullenly.

“I’ll do it,” I say, looking at Ruto, who nods and holds out a hand. 

“Deep breath,” she says, and I oblige before she pulls me under. I wish I could shut my eyes- I have to blink, keep blinking, eyes burning with the water in them, clinging blindly to Ruto’s scaly wrist. She gently tugs me forwards, guiding me through a narrow fissure in the rock, pushing me forward so that I surface alone, dripping water everywhere. The water is up to my chest now, and I’m starting to worry that we’re going to be trapped in here, unable to reach the exit. And what if it starts raining and the water level surges up? If we weren’t doing this to get Ruto’s spiritual stone, for the  _ Kokiri, _ I would probably turn around. But...I need to do this. It’d be dumb to run now. 

Malon surfaces beside me, fiery hair plastered to her face and water running down her face. She unclasps her hands to release Navi, gasping for air and dripping wet- she’s not flying like that, surely. I scoop Navi out of her hands and place her on my shoulder, where she stretches out and just lies there. Not too long after that, Zelda breaks the surface, followed by Ruto. 

“On we go,” the Zora says, and Navi makes a half-hearted noise of dissent that no-one hears.

The lanterns must have been left on the other side- since they couldn’t go under the water- so now Zelda raises her hand and lights it on fire. It’s a pitiful fire, probably offset by the water all over Zelda’s hand, but I still catch myself shying away from it.

“Don’t focus on the fire,” Malon murmurs. “Focus on the light, fairy boy,”

I do as she says and feel the tightness in my chest dissipate, and Malon offers a slight smile.

“There ya go,” she says. “Good as new,”

“Thanks,” I say, following after Ruto and Zelda, water lapping ever higher. Malon grins, flicking a chunk of dripping hair out of her face. 

“Anytime, fairy boy,”

How Ruto knows which fork to take at the endlessly branching intersections is beyond me, but she hesitates only for a few moments at each one before purposefully surging forwards through the water down a particular tunnel. It becomes more daunting as we continue on, the air progressively becoming more stale and tasting of moss and dirt, the water ever-higher. At one stage the ceiling is so low that we’re crouching to fit, except when the ceiling rises so does the water, and we’re standing straight with out heads tipped back to keep the black water from flowing into our noses and throats. The very motion of us moving has me choking on the foul-tasting water, because I’m shorter than the others, and before long we’re bumping our foreheads on the rock with every step. I have to hold Navi up with one hand because her wings are still too wet to fly, and there’s nowhere for her to sit on me where she wouldn’t fall into the water. Ruto has dropped under the water entirely, it posing no more a threat to her than a breeze, but I can’t quite drag my eyes away from the trickle of blood leaking down Zelda’s forehead from a cut left by the rock.

When the water levels out again, dropping back down to our chests, everyone is relieved. But not for too long; once again, we’ve come to a dead end.

“Is there another passage underwater?” Navi asks anxiously, back to resting on my shoulder, wings held aloft to dry. Ruto drops underwater and searches.

“Look,” Malon says, pointing upwards. “There’s a cold draught coming down. There must be a passage somewhere,”

Zelda casts her flaming hand around, examining the area, and utters a short cry of triumph when she finds it. A narrow chute, extending upwards, with deep grooves in the rock. Grooves that could well make footholds.

“I think that going back up is a good idea,” she confides while Ruto is underwater and can’t hear her. “I think Ruto is just following her instincts, but we’ve been going deeper and deeper into these caves. At least if we go back up through this chute we’re closer to the surface,”

“Is there gonna be a path up there to lead us back to the entrance?” Malon asks. “Cause I ain’t sticking around if we’re going to be stuck in this dank drain for the whole time,”

“If there’s a draught, there’d have to be an entrance point up there somewhere, above water,” Navi reasons. “We’d just have to hope that it’s big enough for you guys to get through,”

Malon, meanwhile, examines the grooves. “I wonder what left these?” she asks. I join her. The grooves are almost corkscrew-shaped, smoothly carved into the stone, leaving it with a glassy texture. Water gently trickles down- slowly, so there mustn’t be much water above us. It’s all down here.

“It’s like it’s been forged,” Zelda says uncertainly. “Burned to glass,”

“Oh, great,” I sigh. “There’s going to be another giant spider or something, isn’t there,”

“At this point, I’m suspecting it,” Zelda says grimly. “These caves seem too twisting to be entirely natural. Something has carved them out to be like this,”

“Well,” Malon hefts her morningstar, “I want to see it! I’ve never seen a monster,”

“Be glad,” Navi says darkly.

Ruto surfaces again. “I can’t find any passages down there. I was so sure I could smell fresher air…”

“Here,” Zelda says, pointing out the chute. Ruto examines it.

“Nice find,” she says. “I’ll go first,”

“Like I said, someone who can fight should go first,” Zelda repeats. 

“I will,” I offer immediately, moving forward to jam myself into the chute. The shield on my back clanks against the stone as I brace my back against it, pressing my boots into the slippery grooves and slide myself upwards, before lifting my feet to the next groove and repeating the process. It’s slow, painful going, and in some places the shiny stone has been forged into sharp edges that slice at my arms, but eventually I reach the top of the narrow passage and haul myself out into a slightly wider cavern.

“Are you okay?” Zelda calls up, and I see the blue light of Navi following me up, wings finally dry enough for a faltering flight. 

“Fine!” I say, and Navi lights the cavern, brushing wet hair from her face. 

“Oh Din,” she blurts, freezing in her examination of the room. I turn to face her just in time to see the creature hurtling for my chest. It collides with me and I hit the ground, my shield thankfully protecting my back from the impact but not my head. I’m dazed for a few moments while Navi swoops the creature, hands burning with fae magic as she tries to ward the creature off. It makes a muffled squealing sound as she presses scalding hands into its flesh. A sharp pain brings me back to my senses and I force myself up on one arm to realise that the green bulb-shaped creature has dragged down my collar with a stubby yellow tentacle and is  _ sucking _ at my collarbone. And it  _ hurts. _ I fumble for my sword and slash at the thing, lopping off several of its tentacles, and it shrieks and lets go, leaving a round wound on my collarbone that leaks blood. I grab my shield just in time to deflect its second attack, and it hits the ground, stunned. I quickly plunge my blade straight through it and it howls pitifully, spurting a greyish gunk before going still.

“Link?!” Zelda hauls herself out of the passage, arms scraped badly in her haste. I wrap a hand around the mark the creature left and kick the dead thing towards her. She flinches away from it. “Show me,” she says.

“Are you alright?” Navi asks as I let Zelda see my wound.. “I think I hurt it, too.”

“Thanks for your help,” I tell her as Zelda tugs a strip of cloth from her pouch and starts trying to awkwardly bandage it. Malon joins us.

“Quite the hickey, fairy boy,” she snickers, and Zelda looks mortified.

“Malon!” she hisses.

“What’s a hickey?” I ask, bewildered.

“You don’t need to know that,” Navi says quickly. “I’ll tell you if it ever comes up again,”

Ruto finally clambers up the chute.

“What’s a hickey?” I ask her immediately, and she blinks dumbly.

“Don’t tell him,” Zelda advises.

“Okay,” Ruto blinks.

“Y’all are borin’,” Malon complains. Ruto examines the dead creature.

“Ooh, that’s a Ropa,” she says. “Did it bite you?”

“Yes,”

“Gross,” she says.

“It better not be poisonous,” I say wearily. Ruto shakes her head. 

“It’s not,” she reassures me. 

“Good,” Navi says. “Are there more of them in here?”

“Probably,” Ruto says, “but we’re almost there. I can feel it!”

“How do you know?” Malon asks.

“Witness for the defense over here,” Zelda sighs. “But I agree. How do you know?”

“I can feel what I’m looking for,” she says defensively. “It’s a long story,”

“Come on, Zora lady! Let’s keep moving!” Malon cheers, and Ruto nods briskly.

“This way,” she says. “And stay alert for more Ropa,”

She strides forward into yet another passage, and as we enter it, Zelda’s hand once again aflame, I can’t help but notice how the edges gleam like glass.

Malon fells the next Ropa. It jumps at Ruto and Malon doesn’t even let it get there before slamming it down out of the air with her morningstar, the spiked weapon dripping with the gray sludge.

“That was fun,” she giggles, kicking it. “Daddy won’t let me shoot the Wolfos that harass the Cuccos,”

“Why is everyone I know unnecessarily violent?” Navi asks nobody in particular.

“You burned out my eyeball, you hypocrite,” Zelda reminds her.

“I said  _ unnecessarily.  _ That was entirely necessary, at the time,”

“Overkill, though,”

“Not really,”

“Guys, shut it!” I say suddenly, a sound alerting me. “Did anybody hear that?”

“That was almost definitely a monster, I bet you anything,” Navi hisses, tilting her head to listen. It happens again- a hissing slithering sound, like something smooth rubbing against something less so. Say, a monster, rubbing against rock.

“We should keep moving,” Ruto says, hurrying us forwards. “I’ve heard a dozen urban legends about these caves and I’m not eager to discover if any of them are true,”

“That would have been useful information before we came in here,” Zelda says crossly.

“What she said, Zora lady,” Malon agrees cheerfully, for the sole purpose of stirring Ruto up. Ruto glares.

“I didn’t think any of them were really true,” she said. “Do you believe everything you hear?”

“Link does,” Navi says. “He’s very gullible,” 

“Shut up,” I say, embarrassed, and she laughs.

“Aww, I love you all the more for it,” she says, ruffling my hair with a tiny hand. 

“Thanks,” I say, kinda touched. She smiles, cheeks raising to show impossibly tiny teeth.

“You’re welcome,”

The warm moment is broken by Zelda setting another Ropa on fire with her magic; I jerk backwards away from the writing, flaming creature, and Malon shoots a filthy look at Zelda.

“Stop tossin’ ya fire around, straw-head. Can’t you see it’s bothering him?” she admonishes. Zelda blinks, taking in my no doubt ashen face.

“Link?” she says uncertainly.

“What did you expect?” Navi says scathingly. “You made him watch his home burn. He’s obviously not going to be okay with fire!”

Zelda flicks a hand and the Ropa burns brighter, curling to ash in a matter of seconds. She looks abashed.

“I-I’m sorry,” she says jerkily, turning away. Our footsteps echo in silence as we continue on our way, the eerie sliding sounds rattling around us. I can only hope that Ruto’s suicidal adventure doesn’t drag us all down with her.


	27. One Snake, Two Snake, Three Snake, Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The creatures of the caverns put up a fight against the intruders, whose motivations are flickering in the dark and wet. Ruto, as it turns out, can't keep her promise.

“Here,” Ruto says, tugging on a rock. “It’s through here. I can feel it,” 

“Are you sure?” Zelda says anxiously, eyeing off the rock. Water is pouring from a crack in it at a rather fast rate, but Ruto nods. 

“It’s a bit farther, but this is definitely the best route,” she says. “We just need to-” she grunts with exertion, tugging harder on the stone to try and pry it free, “-clear this path!”

“Allow me,” Zelda says, nudging Ruto aside. “Take a deep breath, just in case you get swept back,”

Malon, Navi and I exchange identical looks of exasperation before simultaneously sucking in a breath; Navi flutters right to the roof of the cavern. Zelda lays her hands on the stone and a moment later there’s a sharp crack- which sounds vaguely familiar- and the stones explode away from her hands, a gush of water catching her and hurling her several feet backwards, bowling over Malon in the process. My feet go out from underneath me but Ruto grabs me before I’m swept away. The flow of water subsides to a knee-high stream, and Zelda picks herself back up, coughing up water. 

“Lead the way,” she says weakly to Ruto. The Zora steps over a larger rock and strides forward, splashing through the water. We pass a second tunnel, but the entrance is high off the ground- no way any of us can get in there.

“Ya think that if I go and stand on fairy-boy’s shoulders I’ll be able to reach it?” Malon asks.

“Not a chance in hell,” Zelda says. “Look how steep that is. If it’s as smooth as the other weird tunnels we’ve been finding you’ll slide right back out and crack your head,”

“You’re no fun,” Malon pouts, pointing her morningstar at Zelda. It still has Ropa gunk all over the spikes. 

“We’re not here for fun,” Zelda retorts, turning away to end the conversation.

“She’s always got to have the last word,” Navi murmurs in my ear. She’s not wrong, either. Ruto yelps as another Ropa- this one with what appears to be a worm-like tail- lunges at her; she punches it square in the mouth and it falls backwards, and Malon gleefully descends on it with her morningstar. She probably blunts several of the spikes against the floor as she bashes the Ropa to dust, but if she gets her kicks from monster-slaying I’m not one to judge. A second Ropa bounces out at the cries from the first, and Navi takes this one on, biting her lip before swooping the thing and blasting fae magic straight at it. The thing collapses backwards, dead but completely unmarked, without even a sound.

“Ohhhh, never doing that again,” Navi mumbles, rubbing at her wrists nervously.

“Thank you!” Malon tells her cheerfully, splashing forwards through the water. I look sideways at Navi.

“You alright?”

“I helped!” she whispers proudly. “Like, it was super gross, but I helped!”

“I’m pretty sure those things don’t have brains anyway,” Ruto calls back. “They’re kind of just dumb blobs. Chuchus have more willpower than Ropa,”

“Well, that makes me feel a bit better about stabbing one in the face,” I comment. 

“It should,” Ruto snarks, stepping over a large rock that obstructs our path. “I hardly think that the hero should be squeamish about slaying monsters, especially ones like Ropa. They’re pests, hardly monsters at all. You can’t expect to be a hero if you’re not willing to slay monsters,”

“Well, I haven’t seen any Ropa do anything wrong yet,” I reason.

“Are you kidding me?” Ruto says in disbelief. “One bit you! It attacked you!”

“Well, we’re the ones in its territory,” I point out. “It was probably just minding its own business before a bunch of kids got all up in its face,”

“Even the most gentle horse will buck if someone comes at them with a whip,” Malon adds. “You can’t expect any animal to just lay down and take it when you’re attacking them,”

“What she said,” Navi says, settling on my hat.

“There’s a difference between animals and monsters,” Zelda objects, siding with Ruto on this one.

“Which is?” Malon says challengingly. Zelda pauses.

“Animals are helpful creatures that serve a purpose, like a cow. Monsters are oppressive and destructive, like a Gohma,”

“By that logic, a snake is a monster,” Navi says.

“Yeah, and bugs,” Malon joins in. “That’s a stupid definition,”

“Well, animals were made by the goddesses,” Zelda tries, “while monsters weren’t,”

“So that automatically makes them bad?” I ask, wincing as Malon trips over a rock. She hurriedly picks herself up again.

“I’m fine!”

“Well, yes,” Zelda says. “They’re unnatural, they weren’t made to fit this world as the goddesses’ creations were. Monsters and demons aren’t good for the world, and they serve no purpose within it.

“What about Keese?” Malon asks.

“Wolfos?” I add.

“You can’t tell us that they don’t serve a purpose,” Navi agrees. Zelda flushes, slowing her pace to fall into step with us. 

“Keese are violent pests, and Wolfos are murderous,”

“Keese keep bugs away because they eat them!” Malon says cheerily.   
“Wolfos keep the animal population down, and in the woods sometimes they’ll take down a Stalfos or two to chew on their bones,” I remind her. “That’s a pretty helpful purpose to serve,

Zelda glares.

“Fine. There’s no difference between monsters and animals, then,” she says. “Explain why animals don’t attack everything that comes near them?”

“But most do,” Navi says, confused.

“Ya ever try grabbin’ a feral kitty?” Malon raises an eyebrow. “They’ll claw ya eyes out. You sayin’ they’re monsters?”

“Birds get all fluffed up and start squawking if you approach them,” I nod. Zelda looks rather irritated.

“Yes, but that’s a natural defense. Monsters display aggression without being provoked,”

“We may well be provoking them by entering their territory,” Navi reasons, earning a frustrated groan from Zelda. “They’re probably just defending themselves,”

Another Ropa jumps out as if to illustrate the point and I raise my shield just in time; the creature slams into it with a metallic clank and a wet squelch, falling to the ground. I quickly stab it.

“What’s with the tail?” I ask, prodding the tentacled creature’s short, snake-like tail with the point of my sword.

“I dunno,” Ruto says uncertainly, peering at it. “I’ve never seen a tail on a Ropa before,”

“The first one we encountered didn’t have a tail either,” Navi says.

“It’s probably just a different breed of Ropa,” Zelda tries.

“I bet you ten rupees that it’s the more dangerous kind,” I tell her, and the grim amusement on her face assures me that she completely agrees.

“No bet,” she says flatly, stepping over the dead tailed Ropa and moving onwards.

Ruto hesitates when the cavern widens out again, into a decently sized area in a rough oblong shape. “Something smells rotten,” she says uncertainly, and I draw in a deep breath. She’s right. It’s the same foul but somehow also sweet scent that would sometimes waft through the village when a Wolfos was near.

“That can’t be a good sign,” Malon says, sounding entirely unconcerned. 

“No, it cannot,” Zelda mutters under her breath, looking around. There are quite a few holes in the ceiling, seemingly formed of that same glassy stone. The floor is uneven, and small streams of water flow along the shallower parts of the floor like miniscule rivers, the trickling disproportionately loud and unsettling.

“I think I just saw something,” Navi squeaks, her voice an octave higher than it should be.

“Care to elaborate?” I ask, raising my sword and shield in preparation. Malon’s grip is a little whiter than I’m sure she’d like to admit around the handle of her morningstar, and Ruto has her hands raised nervously. She didn’t bring a weapon with her, and that’s turning out to be more of a problem than any of us anticipated.

“There!” Navi shrieks, pointing over Ruto’s head, and all of us whirl to see the flick of a tail vanishing upwards into one of the holes.

“Damn,” Zelda says sharply. “Don’t stand under the holes. Whatever that was may well drop on your head,”

We end up around the outside edge of the room, up against the wall- potentially a bad spot to be, if whatever it is jumps at us, but at least it can’t fall on us from above. We catch our next glimpse of it at the other end of the room, a large wormlike creature with a head resembling a Ropa.

“Oh,  _ shit, _ ” I breathe, suddenly flashing back to the Gohma fight. How did I make the same mistake twice?

“What?” Navi says anxiously.

“I think we killed its babies,” I murmur, and Navi flares yellow. 

“Oh no,” she says breathily, eyes wide. “Again?”

“What do you mean,  _ again, _ ” Zelda hisses at us, eyes caught between ‘wide’ and ‘glare’. 

“I mean again!” Navi squeaks. “I can’t believe we did that again!”

“When did you do that the first time?” Malon asks, her face bearing an interested, owlish sort of look.

“Long story,” I say, eyes fixing on the flick of a worm tail vanishing into a hole that’s a lot closer. 

“Look sharp,” Ruto says, “I think it’s about to jump us,”

Ruto’s prediction is 100% correct as the wormlike creature lunges out of the hole closest to Malon and is immediately greeted with a morningstar to the face. The giant Ropa-snake, three times my height, squeals and falls backwards, writhing on the floor, and I step forward and slice it neatly in half.

There’s a pause as we watch the wriggling creature.

“At the risk of jinxing it,” Navi ventures, “that was easy,”

She’s definitely jinxed it, I decide, as the lower half of the snakelike creature proceeds to sprout a head and rears up, joined shortly by the upper half with the wound I gave it apparently entirely healed.

“Get back!” Zelda grabs me and yanks me out of the way just in time to dodge a bite from the creature, and I stagger backwards trying to regain my balance. Zelda’s hand is suddenly ablaze and she goes to throw it at the creature and I flinch backwards sharply. She catches my eye and lets the fire go out, instead thrusting the heels of her hands forward. A sudden, inexplicable gale hurls the two snakes backwards, slamming them into the wall with painful-sounding cracks.

“Since when do they split into two?” shrieks Navi. Ruto looks pale.

“I- I heard a story once, about someone chopping an almost-mature Ropa in half and it just kept on functioning, but I didn’t think they were telling the truth!” she says, panicked.

“Real helpful, Ruto!” I say as one of the snakes lunges forwards again; I bash it in the face with my shield, spin to the side and try to cut it again, slicing just below its head. The head hits the floor and almost immediately sprouts a new tail at the same pace as its abandoned tail sprouts a new head; I kick the former away from me before it can bite me and swing my sword at the latter, trying to cut it again. Malon intercepts the snake I kicked away, smashing its head in with her morningstar, but the thing just re-inflates itself and coils up, springing towards her. She swings at it like a champion, the morningstar connecting with a brutal-sounding thud and sending it flailing to the side, giving her time to back away. I dodge out of the way of a strike and try one last time to cut the creature. Surely it can’t keep splitting forever, right? The one I’m facing is barely my height now, and I stab it straight down where its heart should be. It goes down and stays down for several moments, giving me just enough time to look up in search of another before it suddenly wraps its tentacles around my leg and yanks me down. I hit the rock ground hard, the impact knocking the wind out of me, and I’m stunned for several moments, my sword out of my hand. I register Navi’s shrill battle shriek as she dive-bombs the creature, flying straight down its gaping mouth while alight with magic. I can see her blue light clearly through its throat as it gags, and to my utter disgust I realise that Navi is quite literally cooking it from the inside out. When it falls to the ground and actually stays there, she shoves her way out of its throat again, dripping with saliva and with a look of revulsion on her face.

“That was so gross,” I wheeze at her.

“I couldn’t think of any other way to beat it! I was in a hurry,” she snaps, dunking herself in one of the streams on the floor to wash away the snake’s saliva. That leaves her grounded for now, with her wings too wet to lift her, and I scoop her up and place her under my hat. 

“Hold on,” I instruct her as I roll to my feet, grabbing my sword and lunging towards the nearest snake. Zelda isn’t using her fire magic, for which I’m thankful, and is instead twisting her arms, using absurdly powerful gusts of wind to fling the snake into the floor, then the ceiling, then the floor again, over and over, her hands shaking and her teeth chattering with the exertion of the magic. Her control falters and the snake escapes the gusts, lunging at her, and she throws up her arms and is suddenly encased in a blue crystal that the snake bounces straight off of; in the next moment Zelda loses control of that spell too and the crystal shatters, flying shards severing the snake into three. She gasps for air, and even from here I can see her veins standing out in sharp relief on her wrists and neck, a sickly-looking dark colour. Is this what happens when you use too much magic in too short a space of time?

The three pieces of snake Zelda’s crystal shards sliced reform themselves like all the others, and I’m quick to lunge forwards and use my shield to bash away one that jumps at Zelda, trying to fend them off for long enough for her to regain her strength. Each slice only spawns two more smaller serpents, but at least I’m keeping them at bay. She rises again when I’m surrounded by eleven smaller snakes and pulls me backwards, lighting her hand on fire and unleashing a blast of flame that burns all of the snakes to ashes. Not a single one reforms.

“Are you alright?” I ask, looking at her pale face and dark veins.

“Fine,” she gasps out, and I hesitate.

“Navi, stay with Zelda,” I say, quickly transferring the fairy to Zelda’s head. “Blast anything that comes near,”

“Sure thing,” she says, a determined look on her face. I turn back towards the battle. Ruto is holding her own against one of the creatures, the fins draping from her shoulders now rigid as she spins and slams them into the creature’s head. They must be sharp or spined or something, given by the way the creature recoils, and one slashing motion even separates the creature into twos, which immediately get back up again and resume the attack. I turn my attention to Malon, who’s struggling against three of the snakes with just her morningstar and no training. I join her, fending off a snake that tries to bite at her side while she smashes the head of a second.

“How do we kill these things?” she asks, slightly hysterically.

“Hold them off as long as we can,” I say, “and Zelda can burn them. Burning seems to stop them splitting,”

“Okay!” she says, the vowel turning into a snarl of exertion as she executes a powerful swing that sends a snake flying with spike wounds across its Ropa-like head. It lays limp for a while before slithering back upright. A cry from Ruto catches my attention, and I turn to see her staggering backwards, a fin bleeding profusely. One of the snakes must have caught her arm in their tentacles and bitten her fin. I shoot Malon a look that doesn’t even need words and peel off from her, leaping towards Ruto with my sword outstretched just in time to protect her from a bite that would have taken out her eye. My defense causes the snake to split once again into two smaller, and Ruto presses her back against the wall of the cave with a hand wrapped around the jagged cut on her fin, the deep blue dappled flesh stained with a striking red that contrasts sharply with her scales. Her breathing is heavy, and I turn back to the snakes and slam one in the throat with my shield, hard enough that it gives a pained-sounding gasp and falls backwards, clearly unable to breathe. While it’s down, I turn to the second and thrust my sword straight into its gaping mouth, ignoring the tentacles that wrap around my arm. It, too, goes limp and releases me, and I turn my attention to the third just as the snake whose throat I crushed rejoins the battle. My arms are aching from the fighting, and I cast my gaze quickly to Zelda, who seems to have regained some colour. She catches my eye.

“Herd them into the middle!” she shouts, and I immediately start backing away from my group of snakes, drawing them into the centre of the room. Malon does the same and our backs meet before we both dodge out of the way of the snakes, escaping to the side, and Zelda approaches with her hands blazing with violet-tinged fire. She gives a cry that’s half pained, half defiant, thrusting her hands forward and engulfing the remaining snakes in a fiery inferno. I cringe away from the fire and the distinct smell of burning flesh, and Malon grabs my shoulder as if to comfort me. She has a nasty-looking scrape down one cheek and if I’m not mistaken there’s blood matting her red hair, but her eyes are alert and focused.

“You’re okay, fairy boy,” she says. “Don’t keep lookin’ at it. There’s water in here, so it can’t get ya. Calm down,”

The fire sputters out and Zelda heaves a long breath, exhaustion evident in every part of her. She sinks slowly to the ground, Navi asking her something that I can’t hear.

“I’m so sorry,” Ruto whispers after a pause, an empty space filled only with the sounds of heavy, laboured breathing. She approaches us, hand still clasped over her bleeding fin, fingers slick with her own blood. “I didn’t- I never-”

“What exactly is it that you’re looking for, Ruto?” Zelda almost spits, her composure lost with her stamina. “I could deal with a few monsters but that was insanity. And I doubt it’s even the last one in here, because your precious treasure isn’t even here. What are we looking for?”

Ruto’s teeth are chattering with fear and her eyes are downcast.

“We’re looking for the Spiritual Stone,” she says eventually, and Zelda’s breath hitches in confusion.

“I thought you had that!” she says angrily, trying to stand back up; Navi doesn’t let her, urging her to sit and regain her strength. Ruto looks to the side, ashamed.

“I- I never did,” she says. “I was supposed to get it one day but it was lost in the battle that killed my mother. I-I thought since all lost things end up in these caves, we’d find it here,”

“Do you even have any proof?” Zelda asks, her voice dark and irate.

“No,” says Ruto in a small voice.

“Hey, straw-head,” Malon says nervously. “Calm down,”

“We don’t even have the other Spiritual Stone with us,” Zelda says, “to try and use it in some sort of scrying spell- not that it would work anyway,” 

“Scrying spell?” I ask carefully. Zelda scowls.

“If two objects have been in contact recently it’s possible- difficult, but possible- to track one using the other. But the Spiritual Stones haven’t been in contact with eachother for centuries.”

Ruto’s eyes light up.

“How recently is ‘recently’?” she asks. Zelda looks at her suspiciously.

“Last decade, max,” she answers, and Ruto’s face twists in triumph. From her right hand she pulls off the wide golden band that had seemed to almost hover around the silver cuffs that braced her wrists.

“This is the bracelet that the stone hung on when my mother wore it,” she says quickly. “Would this work?”

Zelda stares at her for several seconds before grabbing the bracelet and holding it in both hands, closing her eyes. She hisses in frustration, opening them again after a moment.

“I can’t cast it,” she says. “I can’t gather the energy,”

“Take mine,” Navi says quickly, planting her hand on Zelda’s scalp and letting it light up. Zelda’s veins start to slowly fade back to their natural colour, and Zelda closes her eyes again. The bracelet seems to hum in her grip, and her eyes fly open.

“Oh my,” she says. “It’s here, alright. And it’s very close,”

“Well, what are we waiting for?” Malon asks. “Come on, ya dozy bulls! We should keep movin’!”

“We should,” I agree, “if just to make sure that no other Ropa snake monsters are attracted by all the commotion we caused,”

Zelda clambers back to her feet tiredly, fixing her eyes on one of several tunnels leading out of the cavern.

“That way,” she says firmly. “We’ll find the Spiritual Stone that way,”

She hands Ruto back her bracelet and together the five of us move on.


	28. The Brutal, Deadly Fight for a Five Inch Stone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The battle for the second Spiritual Stone begins, while the Kokiri have a few unexpected visitors.

We very quickly stumble upon the source of the rotting smell.

Zelda turns away, her hand over her mouth as though she’s physically holding back bile, and Ruto can’t even look at it. Malon hesitates but doesn’t freak out- my guess, she’s seen plenty of her cows picked off by the wildlife before. The only thing I can think of is that time one of the Kokiri didn’t show up for the day’s gardening, and the Deku Tree sent out a search party. They returned with her body, half-eaten by Wolfos, and that’s exactly what the dead Zora in front of me resembles. Ruto apparently loses her fight with her gut because she doubles over and throws up, and I just stare at the dead Zora while Navi shoves at my jawbone as if trying to turn my face away herself. I can’t, though, and I just look at them, not sure what to do or think or say. Eventually, Zelda just swallows and steps over them, and we all pretend not to notice her hands shaking.

“If that’s what happened to the last fellow who came down here,” Malon says after a while, in a thin voice, “maybe we should be turnin’ back,”

“We can’t,” Zelda says raggedly. “We need the stone that’s in here. We’re not just arbitrarily hunting for treasure, Malon,”

“I know,” Malon says quietly, and Zelda shoots me a look.

“Navi, maybe you should guide Malon back out,” she says. “We shouldn’t be endangering her like this,”

“No way am I leavin’ ya down here!” Malon objects immediately. “We go together or not at all!”

“We can manage-” Zelda tries.

“Can it, straw-head!” snaps the redhead. “I’m not leavin’!”

“Your father will quite possibly murder us if you die,” Zelda makes one last valiant attempt.

“Well, then I won’t die! Simple!” Malon swings her morningstar up to rest on her shoulder and splashes onwards, leaving no room for argument. Navi looks at me nervously.

“I’m not so sure of this, Link,” she says. “Someone’s going to get hurt,”

“Not if we’re careful,” I say firmly. “We need that stone to repair the forest.”

“I know,” she sighs. “I’m just worried. You can’t help anyone if you’re dead,”

**[/]{INTERLUDE-TIMI}[\\]**

“We saw the smoke and came as fast as we could,” said the figure in front of Timi, and Timi couldn’t help the suspicion running rife in his gaze.

“You’re from one of the other villages?” he asked.

“Yeah, the one to the east, under the Baga Tree,” said the taller Kokiri. He and his group looked rather shaggy, with unkempt hair and clothes in shades of russet and orange. At least Timi’s Kokiri had an excuse. “Are you the chief?”

“De facto,” Timi responded. “Are you chief of your village?”

“Yes,” said the newcomer. “I’m Scorn, and this is my second-in-command, Valley,”

“Hiya,” Valley said, her voice rather deeper than Timi had expected from a girl.

“Those are dumb names,” someone muttered, and Timi rather hoped that Scorn and Valley hadn’t heard them.

“Where are your fairies?” Somi asked.

“Don’t have fairies,” Valley said. “Baga Tree doesn’t see the need,”

Somi was clearly about to say something but Timi shot him a look and he silenced.

“I’m Timi,” he said. 

“Good to meet you, Timi,” Scorn said. “We figured you’d need help,”

“We do,” Timi said evenly, and Scorn grinned.

“That’s good,” Scorn said, gesturing to someone behind him. “We brought some,”

Timi blinked in surprise as Scorn’s group of Kokiri dragged forward several carts full of fresh-looking logs, sap still oozing out of a few of them. 

“Wait, you cut these down?” Somi blurted, looking slightly horrified. Scorn raised an eyebrow.

“Well, yeah,” he said, “but it’s not like you can carve your homes straight out of the old Grove stumps anymore, and we certainly couldn’t do that in our village,”

Timi bit his lip. “I can’t say I agree with the idea, but if we’re to survive we’ll need to make concessions,”

“Excellent,” Scorn said, rubbing his hands together. “Valley, start coordinating the rebuilding, grab a few of the greenies to help you out,”

“Greenies?” asked someone. Scorn jabbed a thumb at Timi, indicating his clothes, and whoever had spoken muttered a soft ‘oh’ of comprehension. 

“On it, Scorn,” the curly-haired girl said, straightening her skirt and turning to the others, dragging several of Timi’s villagers to join her.

“Hey, leave Fado alone,” Timi said as one of Scorn’s orange-clad Kokiri tried to beckon her over. “She’s injured, she can barely stand. She’s not going to be able to help with the rebuilding,”

“That’s no good,” Scorn said, moving to Timi’s side. “How many are injured?”

“Loads,” Timi said, “although most are healing thanks to Kiri, one of the fairies. There’s a few...a few I don’t have high hopes for,”

“Are they in pain?” Scorn said, suddenly serious. Timi stared at him.

“Of course they’re in pain,” he said roughly, striding towards the tent where the injured lay. “Look at them,”

Scorn’s eyes travelled from Soti to Mila to the unknown girl.

“Gods, why haven’t you put them out of their misery yet?” Scorn asked, horrified. “There’s no way they’re surviving,”

Timi swallowed.

“I know. But nobody wants to be the one to do it, and Mila’s fairy is still alive and won’t hear of us doing anything except keep feeding her fairy-blessed water and crossing our fingers,”

Scorn hesitated, looking at Mila and the way she was breathing unevenly, hitching on every intake of air,  a pitiful sight. He bit his lip.

“Have you...have you considered lacing the water with yew leaves?” he asked eventually, and Timi froze. “The poison would kill them and they’re clearly too far out of it to feel it…”

“Are you insane?” Timi demanded, gut lurching. “We can’t do that!”

Scorn hesitated. “Listen, I...I get that you guys aren’t quite as down-to-earth as my village is, and that you’ve always had the fairies to make your decisions for you. The thing is... you have to recognise the point when it’s an act of mercy to just end their suffering,”

“They’re not just some animal hurt by a Wolfos,” Timi protested. “These are people! It’s different!”

Scorn closed his eyes. “I understand. Just...I don’t think that they’re going to live anyway,”

“Better for them to die naturally then by our hand,” Timi said, his knuckles white as snow around his staff. “I won’t make us murderers, Scorn,”

“That’s perfectly understandable,” Scorn said, looking at the poor girl burned red and black. “Just be careful you don’t fall off the other end and become monsters,”

**[/]{END OF INTERLUDE}[\\]**

The eerie sliding sounds only grow louder as we progress, and it’s clearly taking a toll on all of us. Ruto flinches sharply at every misplaced sound- a rock kicked into the once-again deepening water, a sniffle, a cough, anything. Zelda’s looking dead ahead, barely turning her head at all with her chin up and her arms stiff by her sides. Malon’s walking awkwardly close to me, occasionally bumping into me and making a noise in the back of her throat that I take to mean ‘sorry’. Navi’s just sitting on my shoulder, holding onto my baldric so that she’s not shaken off. 

The loudest sliding sound yet has Zelda lifting a hand to halt us, tilting her head so that one pointed ear is in the air, listening intently.

“Pass me that bracelet,” Zelda says to Ruto, and Ruto once again hands it over. It hums in Zelda’s hands, visibly vibrating, and she bites her lip. “Good news or bad news?”

“Out with it,” Ruto says, dragging herself out of a slouch. 

“The stone is just up ahead. Except so’s whatever’s made that noise,”

“Link luck strikes again,” I mutter. 

“Do we have a plan?” Navi asks, tugging on her clothes anxiously. 

“We don’t even know what it is,” Malon points out.

“We can probably assume it’s not dissimilar to the other Ropa snake we fought,” Zelda reasons. “Therefore, it can do that splitting thing, Ruto, Malon and Link can work on holding them back and dividing them into smaller, more manageable snakes while Navi and I prepare a fire spell to kill them,”

“Sounds good to me!” Malon says in a valiant attempt at her usual cheer.

“Anyone got anything to say?” Zelda asks.

“Please try not to die,” Navi says, standing up and taking off to hover beside Zelda. 

“Yeah, that was already on my list,” I offer her a smile and she just looks at me balefully. “Good luck, everyone,”

We resume the trek, the splashing of our movement a metronome to walk by, and we all freeze as we hear the sliding sound again- much, much closer. There’s a colossal splash behind us and we all whirl to see a  _ huge _ snake twisting out of one of the tunnels, Navi’s light reflecting off what looks like a carapace over it. Zelda blanches.

“Run!” she yelps, taking off down the tunnel, and Ruto flings herself into the deeper water and swims lopsidedly, listing heavily to one side thanks to her injured fin throwing her off. Malon and I don’t even look at eachother before bolting, no longer worried about the sounds of the water because  _ dammit it already knows we’re here. _ Navi shrieks and looks caught between fleeing for her life and staying with us; she loyally drops onto my head and tugs frantically on my hair as we run. I pull my sword as we go, following Zelda’s splashing movement and relying only on Navi’s glow to guide our path.

We eventually burst out into a large, watery, solid room;  _ damn _ it, we’re cornered, there’s no tunnels out of here! Zelda sucks in a breath- there, at one side, opposite an enormous pool of water, is an  _ enormous _ pile of flotsam and presumably lost trinkets- wood, knives, mugs, jewellery, clothing (a veritable  _ army _ of what I’m almost certain is left socks) and, judging by Zelda’s reaction, one spiritual stone. We don’t have time to reach the pile before what was chasing us catches up and I whirl to see it, the stomach dropping out of me. It’s not dissimilar to the Ropa snake we fought earlier...it’s just much,  _ much  _ larger. It looks to have a thick carapace, which is a  _ really bad hitch _ in our plan to defeat it, and it lets out a piercing, high-pitched growling sound. Ruto, who has clambered out of the deeper channel, looks pale.

“Oh, Jabu-Jabu,” she breathes. “How are we going to…”

It doesn’t let her finish her sentence- okay, so logically we should have figured that it wouldn’t, but I honestly wasn’t expecting it to lunge as fast as it does. I barely dodge out of the way, and Malon is right behind me, Zelda throwing herself to the opposite side. Navi detaches herself from my hair and arcs sharply, swooping up and then down to land on Zelda’s, sticking to the plan as closely as possible. I loop around it, dodging a thrashing tail to stab at its long body. I try to stab down between the plates of its carapace but no joy; the blade clanks off loudly and the enormous Ropa serpent, and it lifts its tail to swing it at me. I will forever be proud of my unintentional moment of badassery when I flinch backwards and slip in the water, landing on my shield and managing to shove myself back up to my feet in the same movement. I really, really hope somebody saw that.

Ruto is the first to actually land a hit on the creature. It makes to strike, tentacled head reaching for her, and she abruptly whirls, lashing her good fin in the air, slicing five of the tentacles clean off. The creature shrieks in pain, rearing away from her, and Zelda takes the opportunity to hurl a ball of fire down its throat. Its screams quickly turn hoarse, and Malon catches the Badass Ball when she manages to jump straight up in the air, over the tail that would have slammed her into a wall and snapped her into a ridiculous number of pieces, springing over it as if simply jumping rope. The creature whirls on Zelda and she thrusts her hands out, bathing the creature in fire that washes right over it, leaving it unharmed; Zelda changes tack immediately as the goes to strike her, throwing one hand straight in the air and hurling a ball of emerald-hued light to the other end of the room, then twisting and  _ vanishing, _ dissolving into a gust of wind just as the giant snake throws itself through where she had been standing. She reappears underneath the ball of light that she threw, staggering, looking ill from the spell she just cast. I yank my shield from my back as it goes to lunge at me, and although the attack still sends me flying backwards the creature doesn’t manage to bite me. I hit the rock for a second time, knocking the wind out of me, but I roll back to my feet all the same in time to see the creature throwing itself into the massive pool of water. The splash is colossal and an enormous wave of water catches all five of us, throwing us backwards and washing us into the channels of water that Ruto had been swimming in. I don’t have time to take a breath, sucking in water, but I look around frantically for Navi, knowing that she can’t swim at all. I manage to claw my way to the surface, hawking in a breath, shield gone, and duck-dive under again, scouring the murky water for any trace of that blue light. I see her being swirled in an eddy, looping head over heels, tiny bubbles looping around her like beads. I grab her and kick out savagely, forcing us back to the surface of the water in time to see Zelda howl as the creature grabs her in its remaining tentacles, hoisting her into the air.

I pull myself from the water, not even bothering to try and find my shield, lunging forwards and putting all my weight behind my blade. It makes a terrible sound of protest as I stab the creature but manages to penetrate its armour plates, sinking past the guard- this part of the tail is thin enough to fit between the prongs- into flesh and spurting more of that gray gloop. My knuckles smack into the creature’s slimy side and a second later I’m gasping in pain, staggering backwards and dropping my sword, holding my hands aloft as they burn like they’ve been set on fire

“The slime’s acid!” Navi shrieks, having taken refuge on a rock while she furiously beats her wings, trying to dry them. I shove my hands back into the water, trying to wash away the acidic slime, and scrubbing it earns me more burns across my fingers but gets it off. Zelda ignites her hand once again and grabs the creature’s face, and it positively  _ screams _ and drops her, and she hits the rock feet-first with a loud crack and a cry of pain. Malon is there in an instant, grabbing her and dragging her out of the danger zone despite Zelda’s pained gasps, getting her to safety while Ruto straight up kicks the Ropa snake in the face when it tries to strike them. It’s not the most effective of attacks but it certainly gets its attention when her webbed foot connects with the vividly coloured burns Zelda left across its face, and it snarls and tries to grab Ruto instead. Its tail smashes into the pile of lost trinkets, sending many of them into the water and scattering them across the cave, and I manage to wrap stinging, burning fingers back around the handle of my sword, somehow managing to hold back the whimper of pain as the wood scratches against the vibrantly red burns across my hands, turning around and repeating my previous attack, this time thanking every goddess out there for the guard I thought was impractical before as I angle it so that the guard stops the blade from sinking all the way in, protecting my hands. The creature shrieks again, and  _ surely _ its cries have to be carrying around the cave, right? In any case, I glance over to see a shaking Zelda trying to shove the bones of her leg back into place, and I realise that we’re in trouble. If she spends the magic to heal that leg- which she needs to to fight and walk- then she won’t have enough to actually fight the creature. If she saves the magic and uses it to attack from where she’s leaning against the wall, she’s entirely defenseless if the Ropa snake lunges for her.

I whirl back to Navi, yanking my sword out of the snake’s body with a squelching sound and wrapping a burned hand around her, interrupting her frantic wing-drying. “You can still slow a fall, right?” I ask her quickly, and she nods, not even bothering to question it because  _ we don’t have time, _ and I turn and hurl her straight at Zelda. She flares her damp wings at the last second, slowing her fall enough so that she doesn’t splat against cave wall, dropping onto Zelda’s good leg and immediately lighting her hands with fae magic. She channels her energy into Zelda, who catches my eye briefly as she grits her teeth and  _ shoves _ the protruding bone of her knee back into place with a scream of pain, immediately igniting her hands with violet power and working to heal it before the pain renders her senseless. Malon, satisfied that Navi’s got Zelda, rejoins the fight, slamming her morningstar into the creature’s carapace with enough force to dent it, and I take advantage of the creature’s distraction to stab it again. It thrashes and its tail connects hard with Ruto, hurling her backwards. She hits the cave wall with a sickening crack and drops into the water, vanishing from sight, and my gut lurches but I know she can breathe underwater and I don’t have time to go after her. 

It’s then that Malon makes what is either the most daring or the most suicidal attack I have ever seen in my life. With a swift movement I would guess is akin to the one she uses to mount bucking horses, she springs onto the back of the creature, her thick leather pants sizzling at contact with the acidic slime but managing to protect her legs as she grabs its spines, hauling herself up one-handed. The creature moves as if to rear back and slam Malon into the roof, and Zelda and I react as one. She forces herself to her bare feet and lets out a defiant battle cry as she hurls a ball of fire at the creature’s head; it connects and ignites and although I suddenly feel ice-cold at the sight of it I press forward and plunge my sword into its body, and it turns on me rather than on Malon. I keep its attention off the redhead as much as I can, slashing away at its face like a machine, twisting away from as many of its attacks as physically possible, taking whatever I can so that Malon can reach its head. When she does, she lets out a cry of exertion as she lifts her morningstar and slams it down into the creature’s head, again and again, and it shrieks and thrashes around. I’m knocked backwards by a flailing segment of tail and I skid hard along the rocky floor, the air knocked out of me several times by the bumps before I find myself suddenly underwater with no idea which way is up. I instinctively breathe in, panicked and winded, and the water is no relief to my suddenly brick-laden throat and pressure-filled lungs. It’s a terrifying feeling as I instinctively keep trying to drag air into my lungs only to choke on water, thrashing furiously to try and reach the surface, vision darkening around the edges and shrinking as if drawing away from a knot in a tree trunk. I gag on my own throat, filled as it is with water; whether I’m choking on an inhale or an exhale I can’t tell. It’s a complete accident when I break the surface, gasping in air around the water that’s fighting to come up. I drag myself out of the water and onto the rock, rolling onto my stomach and coughing water out of my nose as Malon drives the enormous snake lower and lower with her strikes, not stopping when its head hits the ground. She only slides off its back, angry burns across the insides of her legs and tears of pain in her eyes, when she’s satisfied that it’s dead.

She goes to say something but instead just whines, and I wish I had enough air in my lungs to ask her if she’s alright. She must get the gist though, around my hacking and coughing, spitting thin streams of water onto the rocks.

“I’m fine,” she says shakily, moving as if unsure which leg to favour. “Oh,  _ Farore! _ ” She sinks to the ground with a whimper, breathing heavily and raspily. 

“Are you alright?” Zelda calls, her voice rough and still tearful, her leg still stretched in front of her and her hands still glowing a dim purple as she tries to heal the jagged gash in her flesh where the bone punched through. 

“Fine!” Malon replies, voice higher than should be naturally possible. I look up to see Navi running across the floor towards us, wings obviously still too damp to lift her off the ground- did she get hit with a second splash of water?

“Come on, breathe,” she instructs me, and I give her the best withering look I can muster.  _ Do you think I’m not trying? _ Ruto rejoins us after a while, looking dazed and dizzy, falling back onto the rock and just laying there breathing heavily. I look around the room. Zelda, with her broken leg. Malon, with her agonising-looking burns. Ruto, barely conscious and shaking. Navi, with her wet wings and fearful eyes. Me, barely able to breathe. Some heroes we are.

But, we beat it. And nobody died. That, I believe, is an achievement all of itself.


	29. Water on the Rocks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now that the Ropa is dead, they have some time to breathe again. The grave robber makes her plans for breaking into the castle.

Eventually, Zelda manages to push herself to her feet, using the rocky wall beside her as a crutch to force her leg straight underneath her. She staggers over to Ruto, looking pale and sickly and limping along like she expects her leg to give out underneath her at any second. It probably will, too.

“Ruto?” she says, voice wavering, and Ruto doesn’t respond for the longest time. The water around her swirls in little eddies, ripples spreading out across the cave and tiny waves lapping at my shoulders as I push myself over to lay on my back. Eventually Ruto seems to realise that Zelda had addressed her, turning her head ever so slowly to face Zelda.

“Hmm?” she says blankly, violet eyes struggling to focus on Zelda, and the blonde awkwardly manages to do a sort of crouch with her injured leg stretched out to the side so she doesn’t bend it, and I’m fairly sure that was a curse word she hissed as she does so. 

“Ruto, look here,” Zelda says, and reaches forward and lifts a boneless Ruto up slightly. Ruto frowns slowly.

“My head hurts,” she says bluntly, and Zelda hesitates, looking at Ruto with a puzzled look on her face, before reaching out to place her hand on Ruto’s head. I catch the telltale lilac glow of a healing charm. I push myself up on an elbow, coughing a little more with the movement, and turn to Malon, who’s trying to pull melted scraps of leather off her burned legs with silent tears pouring down her face and a bloody lip from biting it so hard. 

“Z-Zelda,” I call as Navi looks at the burns. “Malon needs help too,”

“Can you come carry Ruto?” Zelda calls back, and I push myself to my feet, stressed bones protesting painfully and my burned hands stinging something furious against the rock floor grating up against them. Bare feet splash against the water lapping across the room, and my foot connects with somebody’s lost brooch, sending it skipping across the rock and into the deeper water with a plop. I help Zelda up before turning to the Zora, who is blinking her way back into actual sentience. Picking up Ruto turns out to be easier said than done, as she’s slimy like a- well, a fish. The first time I try I nearly lose my grip on her, and between trying not to grab her bare skin and trying to not squash her it’s quite a feat. Ignoring my stinging hands, I stagger back to where Malon and Navi wait, Navi bemoaning the fact that her surprise dunking has stripped her wings of healing dust. 

“That was a gutsy move, Malon,” Zelda says as she lowers herself to the ground again, looking at Malon’s flushed, pained face and then down to her burned legs. “I’m going to have to touch it to heal it, though, and...I don’t think I have the strength to heal it completely,”

“Shuddup, straw-head,” grunts Malon, squeezing her eyes shut. “Hurry up and jus’ do it already,”

Zelda looks doubtful but she grits her teeth anyway, apparently struggling to call forth whatever magic she needs to heal the livid burns along Malon’s legs after the taxing battle and the healing of her own leg. It works, although painfully slowly, so slowly the healing is barely noticeable. Were it not for the violet oozing from Zelda’s hands- oozing rather than flooding, I notice- I might not have been able to tell. Eventually the flow stops completely, with Malon’s legs still red-raw but not tattered and scorched as they had been.

“I’m sorry,” the blonde says, withdrawing her hands gingerly, voice tight with that odd pitch voices take on when their owner half-expects that if they talk normally they’ll throw up. “I-that’s all I can do,”

“It’s better than it was,” Malon says gruffly, swiping at her face to wipe away her tears. “Thanks,”

“No problem,” Zelda offers a strained smile that just makes Malon laugh.

“Ya tryin’ too hard,” she says before flopping back to the ground.

**[/]{INTERLUDE-THE GRAVE ROBBER}[\\]**

“I’m still undecided on whether or not we should sneak in, or disguise ourselves,” the grave robber mused, looking out at the castle from her vantage point on the roof. “What do you think?”

“Well,” Quill said, “I don’t much like our chances if our disguise is revealed, but it might be better if we’re ‘supposed’ to be there. We can say we got lost?”

“I like the way your mind works,” the grave robber offered a toothy grin, turning her gaze back to one particular red-scarved knight standing to attention at the gate, spear braced firmly against the ground.  “So. Option one, we knock off-”

“Hey!”

“-we knock  _ out _ one of the guards while you distract them with bird-y things, and I climb into their armour and take their place. You get ‘captured’ by me and I take you up to the castle on pretenses of showing the new breed of monster to the royal mages,”

“I don’t like that option too much,” Quill said hesitantly. “What if I’m not fast enough and one of the guards stabs me with his spear?” 

“Option two then,” she said. “We wait until we’ve seen a group of people enter the castle on a given day, then disguise ourselves like them and go in after them,”

“That would work, but only if they have face coverings for me,” the kid reminded her. She waved him off.

“We can easily wrap a scarf of some sort around your face,” she said. “It’d be no pressure to do that, we don’t really have to worry,”

“Then that one sounds like a good idea,” Quill nodded. “How would we prepare for that, though?”

The grave robber was internally proud of the kid for not once asking why she wanted to break into the castle. Perhaps he just didn’t want to know.

“We’d buy fabrics and the like, the kind of stuff we could quickly whip into a costume at short notice. Shoes for you, as well. Those talons of yours will give you away in an instant. And maybe something with bell sleeves for you as well, to stuff your wings away in.”

“Maybe I just shouldn’t go with you?” he tried, and she laughed.

“Nice try. But I doubt a break-in like this is something to be attempted alone. Especially since I’m not actually there to do anything illegal. Well, anything bad. Maybe illegal. Having a kid like you with me will help prove that,”

Judging by the huff the Rito let out, the answer was exactly what he had expected.

“What do you even want me to do?”

“Follow me around, split if anything goes wrong, distract the guards if you have to,” she rattled off. “Not that hard, kid,” He looked like he had several more objections on his itinerary, but she cut him off. “Listen, it’s not that hard, geez. And you’re a kid. They’re not going to stab you if you’re a kid,”

“Those other armoured men tried to,” he pointed out.

“Well, the town guards are idiots,” she said dismissively. “The palace guard are much more intelligent. You won’t have to worry about them mistaking you for a monster,”

“Sure,” he sighed doubtfully. She eyed him suspiciously.

“And don’t even think about fleeing in the night, Rito,” she warned him. The look on his face told her that she had hit the nail precisely on the head. “I’m serious. I’m not just messing around with this, Rito, this is actually important. Don’t you dare book it when I’m not looking,”

“Can’t you just get someone else to help you, though?” he asked, looking irritated. “I don’t see why  _ I _ have to be involved in this,”

“Fine, then!” the grave robber threw a hand in the air in frustration. “Fly off! You got somewhere better to be?”

Quill stilled suddenly, looking an odd mixture of angry and lost.

“...No. Nowhere better to be,”

“Then stop complaining,” the grave robber instructed. “Just buck up and pitch in. If this prophecy letter is right, we’re going to help save Hyrule,”

**[/]{END OF INTERLUDE}[\\]**

“I suppose this belongs to you, then,” Ruto looks dolefully at the grimy stone in her hands, picking at the decomposed sea flora that has compressed itself into the grooves. The horde gathered by the creature lying dead behind us is sprawling, and even more lies under the surface, knocked into the water during the battle. The stone in Ruto’s hand certainly calls the emerald to mind, what with its golden frame beneath the muck and the smooth, glittering blue stone. Ruto takes a deep breath before pressing it into my hands. “No strings attached. Just...return it to me when you’re done with it, alright? That there is a Zora treasure,”

“We will,” Zelda says, looking at the stone as I tuck it away safely. Malon is eyeing off the gaps in the rock above us.

“It’s night outside, right?” she asks, her voice still raspy and soggy-sounding.

“Yeah,” Navi says. “Why?”

“I think I found where ya draught was coming from, Zora girl,” she points a finger towards one of the larger cracks, and I instinctively raise a wet hand to try and feel the breeze. “Nah, don’t try and feel it. Listen,”

We fall silent, and before long the whispering whistle of the night wind funneling into our little cavern becomes readily apparent.

“We must have gone upwards at some stage,” Zelda says, looking at the spots around the room where water is cascading into the pools and flowing away back the way we came. “This is where the water’s all coming from,”

“Can we get out through here?” Navi asks.

“I want to mark this spot, at any rate,” Ruto adds. “The Zora could benefit from all these lost belongings. Either we could return them to their owners, or sell them if they’re not claimed. Or repurpose them, I suppose,”

She slides back into the water, presumably to pick up the trinkets knocked into the water during the fight. Navi, meanwhile, is eyeing off the ceiling. “I’ll check it out,” she says, fluttering upwards and examining the cracks. She flies out of one and in another several times. I don’t like our chances, though- they all look far too small to fit us big-boned Hylians plus a Zora through them.

“I could probably blast one open,” Zelda says, “although we’d have to be careful not to cause a rockfall in here,”

“That magic ya got there is really handy,” Malon proclaims. “Why don’tcha just blow up everythin’?”

“Because it  _ hurts, _ ” Zelda says, like it’s obvious. “You ever tried magic?”

“Nope,” 

“After a few spells you start to feel the strain,” Zelda says. “It feels like…” she stops to search for a metaphor, “like a really painful muscle cramp, except you don’t know where the cramp actually is,”

“Ow,” I supply, and Zelda raises an eyebrow at me. 

“What?” I say defensively. “I know how much a cramp hurts,”

“Yeah. At least you can massage your cramps. You can’t massage it when you’ve magically overtaxed yourself,”

“So, on a scale of like, one to ten,” Malon says, “how bad’re you crampin’ now?”

Zelda shoots her a look that says she regrets the metaphor.

“Probably a seven or an eight,” she decided eventually. “It’s not too bad, I guess,”

“Why even bother learnin’ magic if it’s just gonna screw ya over like that?” the redhead asks, a touch of incredulity in her words. “Sounds like a good ol’ fashioned sword’ll fix all ya problems just fine without resortin’ to magic,”

“Magic’s more versatile,” Zelda says, “and often more powerful. And I’d like to see you heal someone with a sword,”

“Point taken,” Malon says, completely unabashed. “Still. Sounds painful,”

“There’s certain potions which can abate some of the pain,” Zelda says, “but they often have side effects as well. I usually opt not to dull my magic with the potions just because I know I need to learn to tolerate the pain,”

“That’s ridiculous,” I reprimand. “You’re not supposed to tolerate pain, it’s there to tell you when something is wrong,”

“Says you,” she shoots back, with a meaningful glance at my burned hands. I glower at them for a moment before reminding myself that it’s not exactly their fault they got burned.

Behind me, Ruto pops up out of the water.

“This yours?” she asks, holding up my sword. Shit. It must’ve flown out of my hand earlier and I didn’t even notice it in the carnage.

“Yeah,” I reply, taking it from her. “Thanks. Is my shield down there too?”

“I’ll look for it,” the Zora responds before duck-diving back under the water, ripples signifying the place she disappeared from. 

“And if ya could try findin’ his marbles too, that’d be great!” Malon calls cheekily after her, and I shoot her a glare that is met only with her delighted sniggering. Honestly.

“You said all things lost come here, right?” Zelda begins, and I just  _ know _ she’s about to join in the snark-fest against me. “Maybe his sense of humour’s down here too, then,”

“We should write up a list of stuff to look for,” Malon has a wickedly mischievous gleam in her eyes. “I bet if we look hard enough we could find his brains too,” 

“I thought you were on  _ my _ side,” I complain, giving her a look that’s halfway between pleading and baleful. 

“I am,” Malon assures me. “But I will joke about anyone. Even me,” 

Navi rejoins us, looking dejected. “None of the cracks I could find are large enough for you guys to even squeeze through,” she says miserably. “I don’t like our chances of being able to find our way back the way we came, either,”

“I should be able to blast one open wide enough for us to escape,” Zelda says, “although you’d have to stand well clear,”

“How will you stop yourself from getting crushed under rocks if you’re so close?” I ask. Behind us, Ruto breaches the surface and tosses my shield at me- it lands beside my feet with a clank, and I pick it up and sling it back on my back. “Thanks, Ruto!”

She dives again, and I tune back to Zelda, who is being directed by Navi to one of the larger cracks. Malon backs off sharpish, unwilling to risk death-by-rockfall.

“You okay?” I ask her, and she grins.

“That was really, really stressful, but  _ so much fun _ ,” she says in a conspiratorial whisper. “I think I like monster-slaying, you know?”

“It’s not too bad,” I admit quietly, thinking of the satisfaction that stirred in my gut when the giant creature’s head hit the ground and didn’t rise up to attack anyone again. “I mean...I don’t enjoy it, but I don’t hate it, either,” How perfectly  _ un-Kokiri _ of me. 

“What’s up with you?” Navi asks, fluttering back up, and I clamp my mouth shut. Navi may be my best friend but no way am I admitting what I just said to her.

“Fairy boy, come on, there’s nothin’ wrong with what ya just said,” Malon reassures me, and I run a hand through my dripping hair.

“I- is it wrong that I sort of enjoyed that?” I ask Navi quickly, rushing the words. As if that makes them any better.

The blue fairy pauses. “Not really?” she decides eventually.

“But isn’t it...I dunno, massively not-Kokiri-ish of me to enjoy something like that?”

At that, Navi snorts. “Sure it’s un-Kokiri- because you  _ actually _ feel  _ bad _ about it. You realise that the Kokiri are pretty much discompassionate little shits?”

“You swore,” Malon says in surprise, once again proving her knack to obliterate any tense atmosphere within a very large radius.

“Yeah, yeah,” Navi snarks back, flushing slightly. “But seriously. You’ve never seen Fado throwing rocks at Stalfos? Never paid attention to the fact that Timi apparently has a pathological need to slaughter at least ten characters in every story he makes up? You’re already so much more compassionate than they are, and you spent most of your life without a fairy to act as your conscience. Don’t feel bad, hmm?”

“You give great pep talks, you know?” I offer a slight smile, and Navi offers one back. 

“‘Course I do. Part of my job, you know?”

“And you’re damn good at your job,” I wink. She puts a hand on her chest, mock offended.

“You mean you’d considered the possibility that I  _ wasn’t _ ?” she says with a scandalised gasp. “The audacity!”

“I’m lost,” Malon says miserably. “You guys are confusing me,”

“I’m just being a prat, don’t mind me,” I reassure her. There’s a period of silence and I look about the cavern, as if a topic of conversation will spontaneously make itself known to me. Zelda’s sitting down and- meditating? Probably trying to un-cramp her magical muscles or whatever metaphor she made up. Ruto’s still duck-diving for treasures knocked into the water, and a small stack of trinkets is piled up next to her diving point.

“So, you looking forward to going home?” Navi asks her, and the instantaneous disgust on Malon’s face has me laughing immediately.

“No!” she says, as if that wasn’t obvious just from her expression. “Are you kidding? Dad’s gonna be so boring and I don’t want to just be all bored. And nobody’ll believe me when I tell ‘em I killed a giant monster!”

“I’m sure we could convince Ruto to write to the Zora delegation,” I grin. “Have them tell everyone that you’re the hero who killed a giant snake who was menacing their caves,”

Malon gawps. “You would do that? She would do that?”

“If we say our pleases and thankyous, she should,” Navi puts her hands on her hips. Malon beams. 

“That would be so great!” she says joyfully. Whatever she goes to say next is obscured by an almighty blast, and we all whirl to see rocks bouncing off Zelda, encased in a blue crystal, hitting the ground and plopping into the water. She must have blasted open the cracks- moonlight is streaming into the cavern, and we can clearly fit through there now. When the rocks stop falling Zelda lowers her arms and the blue crystal dissolves into glittering blue dust that falls gently around her, dusting the rocks and the water.

“We can get out through here,” she says, holding herself all wrong and I’m struck with a sudden stab of worry for her and how much magic she’s had to use today. Between fighting all the monsters and healing so many injuries...she must be completely smashed. It’s a miracle she’s still upright. “Come on,”

Ruto pops out of the water, reacting belatedly to the noise. “Are we leaving?”

“Yep,” I tell her, and she gracefully hoists herself from the water, getting her feet under her and joining us as we clamber up the rocks and out into the night air.


	30. The Latent Idiocy of the Zora King

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> King Zora isn't the sharpest stick in the bundle, and Ruto and her family end up taking the slack. Saria and Mido meet the Lady Seres and aren't expecting what she tells them.

The Zora king has the most selective hearing I've ever come across in my life, and if I didn't have to feel offended at his interpretation of events I'd probably be laughing at them. 

“So you tricked the beast?” the enormous old fish asks, confused.

“ _ No, _ father,” Ruto says in exasperation. “We  _ killed _ it,”

“ _ I _ killed it, thankin’ ya very much,” Malon interjects. “You kicked it. Once. That's it,”

“So...you killed it, Ruto?”

Ruto buries her head in her hands. “What are you actually paying attention to right now?”

A long pause. 

“Has anyone told Soduru that he's looking especially toned lately?” the king asks arbitrarily. One of the ridiculously tall guards standing behind us makes a choked noise and drops his spear, while the other just sniggers as if this is a daily occurrence. Ruto looks like she may cry in frustration. 

“Soduru, you're being distracting. Get out,” 

I feel bad for the poor guy as he goes to back out and promptly trips over his own spear, stumbling backwards out of the room. The king sighs. 

“I'll have to keep an eye on him,” he decides. The other guard keeps sniggering and Ruto- apparently overcome with a fit of pique- whirls around and stalks up to him, kicking him hard in the ankle. I’m sure it would have been a kneecap kick if she was tall enough to kick his kneecaps. The guard stops sniggering.

“Father!” she snaps. “Stop being so unconcerned! We just killed an  _ enormous snake _ that  _ nobody knew was there _ and  _ found a dead body that probably isn’t the only one in the caves _ and you’re not the  _ slightest _ bit worried?!”

The Zora king examines something by his left foot. “That is a pretty pebble.”

“Nayru have mercy,” Zelda breathes as I promptly fail to hold back a bark of laughter at both the blithe innocence on the Zora king’s face and the utter fury on Ruto’s.

“ _ Father! _ ” she snarls, geysers of water shooting upwards with her shout. The Zora king’s attention is finally snagged when water blasts him in the face, although it also has the side effect of raining down on us as well. 

“Oh, what is it,” he says, sounding vaguely annoyed. I’m honestly impressed that he’s not cowering away from Ruto’s livid glare and rage-triggered magic. I wonder if Zelda can do that trick. Judging by her not-so-covertly impressed face, I’d say she can’t.

“ _ We almost just died killing an enormous snake that nobody knew was there _ ,” Ruto snaps. 

“Oh,” the king says. “Is that all?”

“Oh my gods,” Navi looks at me sideways at the exact same time I look at  _ her _ sideways, and we both dissolve into giggles at the Zora princess’ thunderous expression.

“ _ And _ we uncovered a ridiculous amount of lost and found that could potentially be worth hundreds of rupees,”

“That's nice,”

Ruto covers her eyes and counts to three. 

“We-we found the sapphire,” 

_ That _ gets the king’s attention good and proper. His purple eyes are suddenly fixed on his daughter. 

“You  _ what? _ ”

“We found mum’s sapphire,” Ruto says again. “In the caves,”

He leans back heavily on his throne, lost in thought once again. This time, though, he's clearly submerged in darker thoughts than ogling guards and pretty pebbles. 

“Are you sure it's the real one, and not just Rutela’s replica?”

“It's definitely the real deal,” Ruto immediately responds. 

“Well,” he says eventually, “it belongs to you, hm. Do with it as you wish,”

“Okay,” the Zora girl nods. “Thank you.” She hesitates. “Can these four stay here at the domain for a while?” she asks. “They can use the higher levels of my room, so they don't sleep in water,”

King Zora eyes us suspiciously and I pull my most innocent face. I doubt it's convincing, because his gaze lingers twice as long on me as it does the others. 

“Alright,” he concedes. “But have a guard nearby. I don't know these Hylians,”

“Princess Zelda, your highness,” Zelda introduces herself, “as well as Link, the legendary hero, Navi of the Kokiri Forest and Malon of Lon Lon,”

“Princess Zelda?” the king asks incredulously. 

“Indeed,” she nods sharply. “Thank you for your hospitality,”

“Don't mention it,” the king says, in a blatantly contradictory voice that tells us he likes being thanked. “Is there anything else, Ruto?”

“Nothing, father,”

“Make sure to introduce your guests to Rutela and Ralis, hm? It would be good for Ralis to meet Hylians,”

“If ya not careful I'll start thinkin’ ya keepin’ me around just for my ears,” Malon gripes. 

“Will do, father,” Ruto says loudly to drown out Malon’s complaint, turning on her heel and heading towards what is presumably her rooms. I hesitate before following, and there’s something about the malaligned way Ruto walks that makes me certain that she wasn’t finished with that conversation. Had we not been here, would she have continued it? 

The stone pathway rises higher and higher, the blue glow from below making everything alien and unfamiliar. The only sound is the distant rush of water and the sound of our still-bare feet against the ground. Nobody seems willing to break the silence as we all follow after Ruto.

Eventually we run into a Zora woman heading in the opposite direction, sleek and tall- like,  _ really _ tall- with scales of a gentle pink colour, entirely unlike Ruto and her father’s rich cyan. And… unlike my first impression of Ruto, I can definitely tell that this Zora lays on the  _ pretty _ side of the spectrum, despite her inhuman features. She’s all smooth lines and delicate fins, adorned with finely crafted golden jewellery, and it is not at all hard to tell that this Zora woman is important. 

“Ruto,” the woman says in surprise, stopping in her tracks, peering down at us. “I was looking for you. Where have you been? It’s quite late! And who are these people?”

“Hey, Rutela,” Ruto says tiredly. “Everyone, this is Rutela, my father’s wife. Rutela, these are the people who just helped me kill an enormous snake down in the caverns,”

Rutela’s green eyes are wide in disbelief. 

“A giant snake?” she asks loudly. “Ruto, what are you talking about?” 

“We went into the caverns and ran into a Jabu-damned giant snake,” Ruto says bluntly. “We managed to kill it without it killing us,”

“Damn near melted my legs off, though,” Malon says. “I’m Malon Lon, nice to meet ya,”

“Lon? As in, Lon Lon?” Rutela asks. “Don’t we have dignitaries discussing the trade with your father?”

“Yeah,” Malon says. “That’s right,”

“I’m Zelda, your highness,” Zelda says. “Princess Zelda of Hyrule,”

“ _ Really? _ ” Rutela says, looking downright fascinated now. She kneels down, getting sort of closer to our height in the process but not really. Now instead of being as tall as the middle of her thighs we’re up to the middle of her chest. “My, how did you make all these friends, Ruto?

“It gets better,” Ruto says proudly. “ _ That _ is the legendary hero,”

“I do have a name too,” I remind her and Zelda airily. “Just so you know,”

“Well, I’ll be,” the pink Zora says, her voice lilting and interested. “Ruto, however did you meet them?”

“They found me in Lon Lon,” Ruto explains boredly, fiddling with her bracelet. “We had a...point of mutual interest,”

“Ooh, you  _ have  _ been paying attention to your elocution teacher,” Rutela says approvingly. Ruto scowls.

“We should let him have a lesson with her,” she jabs a finger at Malon. “He would have a heart attack within twenty minutes,”

“Are ya sayin’ that I ain’t talkin’ right, ya dozy cow?” Malon says innocently, and I’m one hundred percent sure that she constructed that sentence deliberately to show off her accent.

“I’m saying you talk like you have an ever-present shoe in your mouth,” Ruto says dismissively. Malon makes a choked noise of indignation.

“Now, now, Ruto,” the Zora woman says, biting her lip to hold back a smile. “You’ve got to at least  _ pretend _ to tolerate people,”

“First you tell me not to lie and now you’re telling me to lie,” Ruto leans against the wall. “Very consistent, Rutela,”

Rutela makes a movement that I would almost believe to be an eye roll if I didn’t know better and know that this very tall Zora noble wouldn’t roll her eyes. Surely not.

“Don’t roll your eyes at me,” Ruto says, proving me wrong. 

“I’m not,” Rutela says, utterly failing to prove me right. 

Navi is watching the discussion with a vaguely interested face, and it’s now that I realise that Navi has never actually seen the parenting of any race sans the fairies and the Great Deku Tree. I wonder if she’s mentally taking notes? 

“ _ Nenamr _ ?” comes a much smaller voice, and someone else approaches down the passage, the sound of their little feet loud and slightly uncoordinated. Rutela pivots on her knees to face back up the passage. 

“Ralis, baby? I’m down here,”

The feet speed up and soon I can see a very small, purple-hued Zora...boy? I think? They’re kind of androgynous, it’s hard to tell. The little boy makes a beeline straight for Rutela and skids to a rather adorable halt when he realises that she’s not the only person in the hallway. He very quickly hides behind her, peeping out.

“Who’re they?” he asks in heavily accented, childish Hylian, a voice that makes my heart melt.

“Ralis, these are friends of your sister’s,” Rutela says, trying to nudge the tiny Zora forward. “Look, that girl is the princess of Hyrule!”

Ralis eyes Zelda suspiciously.

“Are you sure?” he asks. 

“Am I sure she’s-  _ yes, _ I’m sure she’s the princess,” Rutela huffs.

“Are you really sure?” he murmurs.

Rutela lets out a long sigh.

“ _ Yes, _ I’m sure,”

“Okay,” he says, and Malon makes a repressed noise that might be a small squeal. “Hello, princess. Nice to meet you,”

“This is prince Ralis,” Rutela says, “my son,”

“Hi there,” Zelda says. “And that’s Link, the legendary hero, and Malon,”

“The awesome one,” Malon says, and I snort. I guess she was feeling left out at having no title to put after her name. “No, wait, I wanna be the snake-slayer,”

“You can be whatever you want,” Zelda says patronisingly. Malon glares at her, a petulant huff on her face. The Zora prince is watching with more interest than is probably necessary, and then he notices Navi and pauses.

“Is that a...a…” He stops, hesitating for a few moments, before biting his lip, huffing and turning to Ruto.

“ _ Ithar rai ndyne?” _ he asks her in a language I assume is Zoran.

“ _ Pa _ ,” Ruto responds. “That’s a fairy,”

“Hello, fairy,” Ralis says, saying ‘fairy’ very firmly. Did he not know the Hylian word for ‘fairy’?

“I’m Navi,” she introduces herself. 

“Hello, Navi,” 

“Rutela,” Ruto says, “father’s given me permission to have these guys stay here for a while, in my room,”

“Really?” Rutela asks, clearly surprised. “Was he paying attention?”

“I think he actually was, for a change. After I made Soduru get out. Father was ogling him again,”

“That sounds like him,” Rutela says, sounding slightly resigned. “Alright then, if he’s given you permission. I’m not sure if Zoran bedding is to their taste, though,”

“Oh, we have bedding with us,” Zelda says quickly. “All we need is a place to put it,” 

Rutela considers.

“All right,” she concedes eventually. “But...leave your weapons at the door, alright? The guards will take good care of them,”

She turns to lead us up the hall to what I assume is Ruto’s room and I unstrap my sword and shield, handing them to the absurdly tall Zora waiting outside the glow-lit cavern. 

I wonder where Malon’s morningstar got to.

**[/]{INTERLUDE-SARIA}[\\]**

They had been in the Library for a day already when the man came to see them, shaking Saria awake gently. 

“Seres’ll see you now,” the man said, and Saria pushed herself upright. It must have been the middle of the night but they had waited long enough. She roused Mido, not bothering to wake Kiri- they hadn’t quite resolved their argument yet, anyway- and they followed the man up into the tower of the Library.

“You must be Saria,” said a voice, and Saria turned to see the woman by the window, watching them interestedly. “You’re looking for Link, I take it?”

“Y-yeah,” Saria said.

“How did you know who we are?” Mido asked, resisting the urge to reach up and scratch at where Kiri was hiding. 

“He told me about you,” she said. “A Kokiri girl with green hair. He didn’t mention you, though..?”

“Mido,” he said quickly. “Link’s okay?”

“He was looking a bit battered and singed, but on the whole, okay,” Seres nodded. Saria felt her stomach lurch in a backwards sense of overjoyed vertigo, and she could feel herself smiling obnoxiously widely. 

“He’s okay,” she breathed, and Seres smiled. 

“Why isn’t he coming back to the forest?” Mido asked, eyeing Seres suspiciously. “What about Zelda? Was she here?”

“Zelda was here, yes, as was Navi,” Seres replied. “Both were fine, if disgruntled. Link will not be returning to the forest until he has completed a very specific task,”

Saria didn’t even bother asking what that meant. “Where can we catch up to him?”

The woman considered. “By now, he would be at Jabuzor...so you’d likely catch up to him at Lon Lon or Kakariko. Although I would suggest you make a detour to Lake Hylia first,”

“What’s at Lake Hylia?” Mido asked. 

“Also, do you have a map we could use?” Saria added quickly. All these place names were useless unless they knew where they were. Seres turned and pulled her own map off the wall.

“I’m not sure what’s at Lake Hylia. Something that may interest you. What that means, I don’t know, so don’t bother asking,” she said, circling three points on the map. “You’re on foot, correct?”

“Yeah,” Mido answered.

“I assume neither of you know how to ride?”

“Why would we?” Saria answered crossly. This woman was all full of assumptions and bullshit. “Nothing  _ to _ ride in the woods,”

“There’s a cart of supplies that was meant to be heading to Pryley in a week, but I’m sure I can convince them to leave tomorrow and take you with them. Pryley is on the banks of Lake Hylia, so it shouldn’t be too hard to find what you’re looking for.”

“You look really familiar,” Saria said after a pause. 

“It’s the hair,” Seres answered, hesitating. “You’re probably projecting your own features onto me,”

“Are you going to tell us what Link’s up to?” Mido asked flatly. Seres eyed him suspiciously.

“Do you have the tales of the legendary hero in the Kokiri forest?”

“Which one?” Saria asked dryly. “Timi’s written so many over the years,”

“You’ve met Kaepora Gaebora, right? Has he told you?”

“If he has, I wasn’t there to hear it,” Saria responded, at the same time as Mido bit his lip.

“Is this the story about the hero blessed by the Winged Goddess?” he asked.

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard Hylia called the Winged Goddess before, but it sounds like that may be the one, yes.”

“It’s never a very detailed story, though,” Mido shrugged. “It’s a bit boring, actually. There’s never any real stuff in it. I must’ve heard it told a hundred different ways, and it changes every time because the storyteller thinks the original middle is boring so they switch it out for something they’ve made up. All that really stays the same is that there was a boy blessed with courage who drew a magic sword and killed a demon to save a princess,”

Seres let out a dry laugh.

“What a romanticised view of it,” she said flatly. “Follow me,”

Seres led them down the stairs and out of the tower, moving along one of the hallways with a step as light as wolfos’ paws, the only sound the vague whistle of air outside the colossal building. She slipped a key from her sleeve and unlocked a door, one that opened into an enormous room. Saria’s jaw dropped at the sight within.  _ Books. _ Rows and rows of books. Never before had Saria had access to  _ real books _ , not just the stories written by Kokiri in times past. Seres didn’t give her time to look around in awe, though. She strode purposefully to a certain shelf and reached up, pulling down a thick volume wrapped in red-dyed leather. She checked the book once before handing it to Saria. 

“You can read, yes?”

“Yeah,” Saria said. Mido made a sort-of motion with his hand. 

“Well,” the Hylian woman said. “That book is the  _ real _ story. And I normally wouldn’t allow children to read it but if you keep going after Link then you’re bound to become a part of all this. And you need to know what you’re getting into,”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Mido asked, sounding cross. Seres just gave them a doleful look. 

“Your stories are wrong,” she said eventually. “And I doubt that the story of the hero could ever be seen as  _ boring _ when you’re a part of it,”

“What aren’t you telling us?” Mido snapped. Seres turned away, taking in a deep breath.

“They’re  _ boring  _ because nobody wants to hear about the worst parts of them,” she said, almost sounding...angry? “They’re  _ boring _ because nobody will remember the massacres, the enslavement of entire races, the destruction of whole villages and provinces and ways of life. And in a hundred years when people look back to right now and talk about this moment, nobody will talk about the hundreds of Kokiri who were just  _ burned alive _ in the forest. Nobody will talk about how the hero was dragged kicking and screaming from his home, to the death cries of his friends and family,”

Saria felt sick.

“And in a hundred years,” Seres said, her voice dangerously close to a snarl, “nobody will talk about the number of people who died before the story even began, just so that the kingdom could be saved from its own stupidity by one person. It’ll all fade away, never to be mentioned. I hope you’re willing to tell the story of how the Kokiri people were the victims of a genocide that nobody even knew about. Because in a hundred years you’ll just be a forest full of fairies where the hero grew up and heroically left to  _ heroically _ save Hyrule  _ again. _ Nobody cares about the dead left behind,”

And if Saria isn’t very mistaken indeed, those are tears glittering on Seres’ lashes, glinting like molten silver in the moonlight.

“You better be ready to tell your story,” she said, swallowing hard. “It’s not like anybody else will.”

**[/]{END OF INTERLUDE}[\\]**


	31. With One Eye Open

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ruto makes preparations to show off why the Zora are _clearly_ the best race in Hyrule, while Timi finds himself caught in a trap he didn't see coming.

Since Talon gave us five days and we’ve only used two, Ruto offers to let us hang around the Zora capital for a day or so.

“Jabuzor has much to offer,” she says, “and you must be absolutely wrecked if you’ve been adventuring like  _ that _ for a week. You need the rest if you’re going to go for the other stone, especially if you’re going to have to go against those brickheaded Gorons,”

“That’s racist,” Malon says, airy and arbitrary, cross-legged by the pool of water at the bottom of Ruto’s room. She’s up to her elbows in greenish-silverish mud, digging pebbles out of the pool in clumps.

“Malon, what are you doing,” Ruto says, and it’s not even a question- just a resigned statement.

“I’m gon’ sell it,” Malon giggles madly, scooping more silver mud towards herself and picking out the pebbles. “I’m gon’ sell it all an’ get mad rich, and nobody’s stoppin’ me,”

“We found a mountain of lost treasure yesterday,” Navi asks, looking actually slightly disgusted in her sheer bewilderment, “and you want to sell  _ rocks, _ ”

“Shaddup, fairy,” Malon points a muddy hand at her. “They’re pretty rocks. Great ornaments. People will love it,”

“It’s coloured that way because of the Zora scales,” Ruto says snootily. “The scales grind down and since they’re iridescent they make the mud and rocks glittery,”

“Don’t care, Zora girl,” Malon proclaims, washing the mud off the pebbles to leave the glittering stones shining. “ _ My  _ rocks,”

And she pulls out a bottle from her bag and starts scooping rocks into it.

“Do you need to go feed your bird?” Ruto asks me, turning away from Malon in exasperation. I stop.

“I hope not,” I say eventually. “I have no idea what he eats,”

“Surely he can feed himself,” Navi reasons. “He did it before we came along,”

“Yeah,” I say, sounding unconvinced even to myself. Malon fills a jar and sticks a cork in the top of it, puts it aside, and starts all over again. Before long she has four jars full of iridescent rocks- as if that’s actually helpful to her. 

Zelda’s still asleep, coiled in a blanket as if it’s a cocoon with one hellishly bruised leg peeking out. I envy her ability to sleep for more than three hours without being woken by a nightmare. Every now and then she’ll make a noise and curl tighter, before slowly uncurling only to repeat the process again in ten minutes’ time. It’s almost endearing, sort of. 

Ruto leans against a wall and slides into a seated position.

“What kinds of things did you want to see around Jabuzor?” she asks me, patting the ground beside her with one webbed hand. “I can ask one of the guards to play tour guide for us if you want. Take you around to see the sights,”

“I honestly don’t know,” I admit, sliding to the ground beside her. “You’d want to ask Zelda that. She’s the one who likes all the...fancy stuff, you know? Ask her, when she wakes up,”

“I’d say the first tree to climb is a  _ bath _ , though,” Navi points out, wrinkling her nose. “You smell like a wet wolfos that’s been rolling in a squirrel corpse,”

“That is a disturbingly detailed description,” I poke her, and she pinches my finger in response.

“True, though,”

“Do you want to do that now, or when Zelda wakes up?”

“She doesn’t share a bath with me anyway, so I might as well do it now,” I shrug, and Ruto nods, standing up. She goes to the door.

“Hey, uh- I’m sorry, I don’t know your name,” she says to the guard, sounding very not sorry at all.

“Makai,” the guard responds, shifting his weight on the spear.

“Right. Makai. Is there somewhere that Link can take a bath?”

“When we have Hylian visitors, they usually favour the waterfall near Hurra’s Spiral,” Makai responds. “I’d have to accompany you, though,”

Ruto makes a noise of irritation. 

“He’s not going to stab me while he’s taking a bath,” she says, annoyed. Makai shrugs. 

“You know how your father gets,” he says, making it clear that he agrees with her. “Paranoid where it doesn’t matter, lax where it matters,”

“Sounds about right,” Ruto grumbles. “He does realise that it’s, like, really really unlikely that the legendary hero and the Princess of Hyrule are part of some big conspiracy against the Zora domain?”

“Does it look like he realises that?” Makai snorts. “Come along, then.”

“Shouldn’t someone watch Zelda and Malon?” Navi asks as I follow after the Zora guard.

“Not really,” Makai says. “It’s mostly you the king was worried about, plus we have Ruto with us anyway. I don’t think that the little mentally challenged girl can cause much trouble,”

“M-mentally challenged?” I ask incredulously. “What the hell’s that supposed to mean?”

Makai looks surprised. “You mean she’s not? I thought you were caring for her,”

“We’re not!” I protest. “Malon’s not mentally challenged at all!”

“If you insist,” the Zora replies placidly. I huff and cross my arms while Navi fidgets on my shoulder.

“She’s  _ not _ ,” I murmur insistently to the fairy, who bites her lip.

“It’s rude to assume she  _ is, _ ” she says hesitantly, “but we also can’t rule out the possibility,”

“Gee, you’re kind,” I mutter. “She’s just as sane as the rest of us,”

“That still doesn’t rule out the possibility,” Navi returns.

Well, shit. Can’t fault that.

The Zora city is pretty large, but the thing is, most of it is underwater. As such, the tour we’re given once Zelda wakes up is pretty short. The waterfalls are gorgeous, a lot of them pouring out of fissures in the rocky walls of the caverns that make up the city, and Ruto makes sure to use her Princess Privileges to convince a Zora I presume is a chef to part with some of his food. 

“Is this meat?” I ask, and Ruto waves a hand. 

“It’s fish. Barely counts,” she says dismissively. I shoot Zelda a questioning look and she just shrugs, using the Zora utensil- what appears to be a single metal prong with a round handle- to impale a piece of the fish. I follow suit, gingerly trying it- it’s kinda flakish, breaking apart between my teeth, but it doesn’t taste half bad.

“Nice,” I say, offering a bit to Navi. Malon’s already scarfed half of it down, looking extremely happy about it as well, while Zelda is eating with careful bites. She’s always so... _ fussy _ about her food.

“It’s very good, thank you,” she tells the chef primly, and he looks delighted at the compliment. Ruto gestures us onwards.

“You know,” Zelda says, “one thing the Zora are consistently praised for is their musical talents. Do you think that it’d be possible for us to see some of that?”

Ruto grins mischievously. 

“Sugar, I’m the princess,” she says with a wicked grin. “I can organise anything I want,”

She drops us in the care of the tour guide and runs off to confront her father about her idea; nobody is particularly surprised when, ten minutes later, we spot her seething and striding towards the rooms to presumably find Rutela.

Before long, the place is abuzz with activity , and it’s not hard to tell that Ruto has managed to organise some sort of show. Rutela glides among the Zora, directing them to the central plaza below, and there are musicians dragging instruments of all kinds behind them. Some I recognise, like guitars and drums and pianos, whereas others are completely alien to me. Zelda stares.

“Well, they sure ain’t doin’ anything by halves, now, are they,” Malon says pensively, watching one Zora girl with a guitar puff on a pipe while she helps shove the piano into the plaza. 

“That they are not,” Navi agrees. “You going to perform back, Link?”

“Huh?” I ask, taken aback.

“They’re performing for you, no? Why not return the favour? You still know that concert piece you did at the festival, don’t you?”

“Well, yeah,” I try, “but I was playing with Saria. I’d need accompaniment,”

“Was it that piece with the really nice arpeggio in the middle?” Zelda asks.

“Huh?”

She whistles the piece back at me and I nod.

“I reckon I can imitate the accompaniment well enough, if you wanted,”

Crap.

“Uh,” I say, but Navi’s clapping her hands.

“Wonderful!” she grins, shooting me a cheeky look. I’d bet the ocarina of time that she has ulterior motives here.

“I can play cowbell,” Malon says helpfully. There’s a slight pause as Navi works out what to do with that.

“I don’t think the duet really needs a cowbell,” she tries. Malon shrugs.

“That’s fine. I’m bad at cowbell anyway,”

_ How can you be bad at playing the cowbell?! _ Navi must be thinking the same thing because the look on her face is brilliant; her hands have curled in a  _ what?!  _ motion without her even noticing.

“That’s...that’s fine. Musical talent is hard to foster,” Navi says comfortingly. Malon shrugs.

“You reckon I care?” she says breezily. “I ain’t gonna need anything like that if I’m gonna run a farm. Might need it if I’m gonna be a legendary hero,”

“Uh,” Zelda says, “Link is the legendary hero. There isn’t really a second one,”

“Sure there can be,” Malon retorts airily, watching a thin Zora boy toting a cello that’s bigger than he is. “Who’s gonna stop me? You?”

Zelda has no reply to that, and I honestly doubt that I do either.

**[/]{INTERLUDE-TIMI}[\\]**

Timi doesn’t believe in coincidences. There was an old fairy saying that Epheremelda had been fond of saying when something went suspiciously wrong in the village.  _ Wentwas schwind kurnachem sagast narand widir, glauren neghtan hast.  _ If something goes missing when you want to take it, all will think you did. And by the gods, did Timi think  _ he did. _

Soti was dead. And Timi did  _ not _ think that was a mere  _ coincidence. _

“Was he having trouble breathing? Were his lips blue?” he demanded, and the Kokiri who had been watching the three overnight shrugged helplessly. Timi would bet any number of rupees that the moron had fallen asleep- actually, it wasn’t out of the question that he’d been drugged, given Scorn’s  _ apparent _ propensity for slipping things to people. Timi found the dark-haired Kokiri in a matter of minutes, the autumn-orange of his clothes standing out in sharp relief against the charred black and tentative green of their surroundings. Timi had never considered himself a violent or physical type and was therefore quite surprised when he found himself having punched Scorn across the jaw, knuckles smarting in a way that suggested that the smaller Kokiri had broken something. Scorn looked at him in innocent surprise, which just infuriated Timi more.

“You two-faced, murdering bastard!” he snarled, and Scorn tilted his head.

“I’ll say,” he said loftily. “You greenies sure are a violent folk. No wonder your tree saddled you with fairies- you need them to keep you in line,”

Timi almost growled, angry in a way that was messing with his senses. His arms felt twice as heavy as normal and Scorn looked miles away. “ _ You killed him _ , you lying bastard!”

Scorn narrowed his eyes.

“Don’t go blaming your grief on me,” he said sharply. “We’re helping you here, you concienceless prat. He died because he was injured and that’s how it works. What, you thought you could cheat the laws of nature?”

Timi was speechless, and before he could say anything more he forced himself to calm down. Breathe in. Breathe out. 

“Just yesterday you said that you thought we should put them out of their misery with a few well-placed yew leaves,” he said coldly. “You expect me to believe that it was a coincidence that Soti, the  _ least _ injured, would just  _ happen _ to die mere hours after you said that?”

“Yew leaves?” Scorn asked, eyes wide in rather convincing confusion. “Those kill people?”

“O-of course they kill people! Everyone knows that!” Timi said. Why was he denying it so ardently? He looked around at the bewildered faces of his fellow green-clad Kokiri, and-

And... 

And the realisation hit him like a branch falling from the skies, like- like a flaming house and its cluttered contents collapsing and crushing him flat, like a burning strut crashing onto his leg, like a gust of magical wind hurling him backwards into a building.  _ Oh my gods. _

“Timi,” Scorn said evenly, “you’re not making a very good case for yourself here. For one, you’re the one who came up with the idea of yew leaves. How did you even know they were poisonous, and why would you even think to use them in a murder?”

_ Murder _ . That’s what this was now. And Timi running in with his sword half-drawn had just managed to implicate himself as the most likely suspect.

“I-I used it in one of my plays,” he said. Scorn looked around and spread his arms wide, appealing to those around him.

“That’s pretty messed up,” he said. “Why would you do that?”

“Because writing stories means that there needs to be a conflict,” Timi said after a pause. The nicest way to phrase the way that the character  _ had _ to die to make the story work.

_ Slow down. Think. Justify your actions. You know you didn’t do this. _

“Well, if this is all one big story to you,” the dark-haired Kokiri continued, “I can see why you might think it’d need more conflict. After all, my village’s people just came and solved the conflict that had already been in place. I guess you’d want another one if you were going to make this story work again. Was I supposed to be the villain of this piece?”

_ Oh my gods. Oh my freaking gods. This is actually happening. I’m being accused of murdering Soti. _

“I didn’t kill him, Scorn,” he said.

_ Wow. Scorn is a great villain name. I should use that. If I don’t get lynched, that is. _

_...I really should have seen this coming, shouldn’t I. Dammit. His name is a villain name for goodness sakes. Mysterious dark-haired loner comes in to help the protagonist after a disaster and then displays clear inclination to poisoning people? If I was writing this I’d throw it out because it’s so unreasonable for the protagonist to miss that. I am officially the worst protagonist to ever exist.  _

“It’s not out of character for you to have, though. It’s well known that your group of Kokiri have no conscience. If your fairy wasn’t around to stop you, then...well. What  _ was _ to stop you?”

“Everything!” Timi replied, and Scorn just looked at him with dark, level eyes.

“Which means the same as ‘nothing’,” he said, and Timi, as much as he wanted to, realised that he couldn’t disagree. There was no evidence that either Scorn nor Timi were the culprits- but Timi looked a hell of a lot more suspicious than Scorn did. 

Well. This was one way to learn to think before you act.

He looked to Somi, who had joined them at the commotion and was staring at Timi with utterly undisguised hatred. He cursed mentally, taking a millisecond to wonder why he swore in Fae in his own head.

“Shoot, Somi, really!” he said, trying not to sound too scared and completely failing. “You-you know I wouldn’t do that, ever!”

“A lot of people have done things they wouldn’t have seen themselves doing since the fire,” Reimi interjected dangerously, her voice shaking.

“I-I didn’t!” Timi insisted, thinking hard. “Epheremelda can back me up, she was with me all night!”

Timi had about half a second’s warning before Somi went for him, a mangled howl of “you bastard!” heralding the attack. For  _ once _ in his life Timi’s height was on his side; he ducked under Somi’s arm and  _ bolted. _ Someone behind him shouted as he vaulted over the construction logs in his path and hightailed it towards where he knew Epheremelda was. Epheremelda could back him up. He got to the pond and leaped straight across it, landing in the silt at the other side and continuing on without even stopping to shake his boots dry. He hadn’t won the pond-jump event at Greenleaf for nothing, he reflected, insanely glad for the advantage. He’d never been the fastest runner in any circumstances, and without the pond to hold the others up he had no chance of getting anywhere at all. He ducked under a tree that was resting heavily on the remains of a house, racing towards the makeshift medicine tent as if there were wolfos on his heels rather than other Kokiri. He burst into the room.

“Epheremelda!” he yelped, and the fairy whirled to face him. “They think it was me!”

She understood immediately.

“Keep running!” she ordered immediately. “I’ll hold them back and explain! But if they catch you they won’t stop there!”

Timi nodded and streaked out the back of the tent, bolting into the charred trees. Once upon a time his green clothes would have afforded him camouflage in the undergrowth, but with the forest scorched away by the fire the only green came from the brave shoots pushing their way out of the ashen soil. Timi knew he shouldn’t look over his shoulder but he did anyway, flinching at the sight of the mostly green-clad Kokiri approaching the tent where Epheremelda waited. He’d known that tempers and emotions were at a legendarily all-time high but he’d never,  _ never _ expected them to turn on him. He probably should have predicted that  _ someone _ would become the punching boy sooner or later.

His fairy had never had the strongest magic but he still felt the thrum of the shockwave as she displaced an awful lot of air by throwing up a wall in front of the approaching mob. Timi didn’t bother checking to see whether it had stopped them, racing forwards still. Where was he running? He tried to catalogue places of safety- the closest would have to be the Forest Stage, surely. So that was where he ran, streaking through the trees in a direction he  _ hoped _ was the right one. With all the landmarks burnt away he had no way of knowing where he was heading. Which was dangerous.

He skidded to a halt when he realised that the burnt trees were getting closer, forming a sort of hallway, and hesitated. This wasn’t the Forest Stage. He probably would have turned around if he hadn’t heard the shout behind him and then he took off again, racing down the narrow path which seemed to cut out the light above him.

_ This is a great setting for a play, _ he thought distantly.  _ Have the punching boy die here. _

It then occurred to him that  _ he _ was said punching boy and he picked up the pace, running faster, lungs burning with the exertion. He hadn’t been breathing the same since the fire and he  _ really _ hadn’t needed this to make it worse but it wasn’t like he had been given a choice in the matter. The tree-bordered path abruptly opened up into a meadow and Timi skidded to a halt. Here, it was  _ green. _ As if the fire had never touched it. He turned and looked back at where the path had been and saw only woods- regular woods, fading out to the charred sticks left behind. A chill struck him as he turned back to face forwards in the meadow, moving forward until he realised that the ivy-covered behemoth was a  _ building, _ a marble-carved building.  A nearby stump had an ocarina lying abandoned beside it, as if it had fallen from someone’s pocket. Timi picked it up and looked at it- if he very much wasn’t mistaken, this was Saria’s spare. He looked back up at the building, the doorway several metres above the ground as if there had once been stairs or a ladder to get in. The archway above the entrance bore a rune that Timi felt like he should know- four curved lines woven together. And the rune was pulsing green at an irregular rhythm that Timi couldn’t place until he realised it was identical to a heartbeat.

There was only one place this could be. A mysterious, enormous building within the forest that had somehow guided Timi to it when he needed somewhere to hide? He took a deep breath. He’d heard Link and Saria talking about the place and had always assumed that they had nicknamed a hideyhole they shared by the same name. It now occurred to him that they may have, in fact, found the real thing. Because if Timi had found it, then that meant others perhaps could, too, if they needed it. His writer’s mind rose to the occasion with an image of a broken-nosed Link, face splattered with his own red blood and tears after another brutal gang-up, fleeing into the woods to hide- and being welcomed by the legendary haunt of the woods, setting of many a tale told around a meal by fairylight. Timi closed his eyes.

He had found the Forest Temple.

**[/]{END OF INTERLUDE}[\\]**   



	32. The Kind of Dreams That Burn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Zora party ends early for Link and Zelda, who have more pressing matters to worry about. While they've been journeying to repair one evil, another has been rising while they weren't paying attention...

Zora know how to party, that’s for sure, even if I’ve been kneed in the head three times already.

It feels wrong, though, as Ruto grabs me by the hand and drags me into the crowd of dancing Zora, limbs and fins twirling to the beat of a song played in the centre of the courtyard, a Zora girl with a gleaming violin whipping the bow across the strings like nobody’s business. Fado would be seething with jealousy, if she could see it.

And again, that lurch of guilt.  _ Why am I here dancing when I have so much to do? _ Zelda swoops in out of nowhere as if to respond to that thought, looking me dead in the eye.

“What, are you a mind reader now too?” I grouse at her.

“Relax,” she says instead of an actual response. “You know they’re okay and it’s alright to loosen up and get rid of the stress you’ve been harbouring,”

“Sure,” I say unconvincingly, and she arches an eyebrow.

“If you want, I’m sure there’s a Zora somewhere here who knows how to talk to someone about guilt,” she says, more sober now. “We can easily ask them if they’re willing to give you a talk about it,”

“Sounds great,” I brush her off. “How about tomorrow?”

“Alright,” she says cautiously. “Just...look for the fun part of it. Life doesn’t stop being funny when someone dies any more than it starts being funny when someone is born,”

She moves back off into the crowd, her blonde hair setting her apart from the countless scaled Zora around her. Malon pops up and grabs my arm, dragging me closer to the violin-playing girl.

“She’s so good!” the redhead hisses as she limps in an odd, hurried-but-delicate way on her burned legs, ogling the girl shamelessly as she dances to her own song. The bow has a lot of the horsehair flying free, snapped with the intensity of her playing, and I’m a little surprised that they haven’t flicked into the girl’s eyes yet.

“She is,” I agree.

“Are you gonna play?”

“I dunno,” I answer honestly, watching as Ruto somehow ends up in the middle of a ring of dancers. She’s pretty good, twisting with the music, and she’s worked in flaring her fins to the beat as well- although her injured fin isn’t keeping up, she’s still quite a spectacle.

“She dances real pretty,” Malon says, following my gaze. “An’ I reckon she’s flirting with that Zora boy there,”

She points out a tawny-hued Zora boy, and sure enough Ruto’s shooting him little glances as she moves.

“Subtlety not her strong point?” I ask arbitrarily, and Malon snorts.

“I’m thinkin’ no,” she says. 

The violin girl finishes her piece to loud applause, and I hurriedly join in as she gives a sharp bow from the waist and hurries out of the central stage area. Barely a moment later a duo with a guitar and a flute have replaced her, and a dancer with what I’m dead certain is a pair of swords stands in the middle. The song starts and the sword-dancing Zora man is off, twirling the blades like they’re Din-damned ribbons.

“That is so cool,” Malon hisses in admiration, watching as the dancer flicks a sword into the air and catches it by the hilt behind his back. “I’d chop my own head off if I went tryin’ somethin’ like that,”

“I’m pretty sure most people would,” I say, slightly nervous. It’s beautiful, for sure, but dangerous. Malon doesn’t seem one to dance too much, and I agree- especially given that we’re barely up to the knees of some of the Zora. These guys get  _ tall _ . Malon finds one of the carved pillars and sinks to the ground against it, not bothering to fold her legs like Zelda may have done- actually, folding her legs would probably hurt with all the slowly scabbing burns mottled over them. I join her on the ground, watching the Zora move to the music into the early hours of the morning.

Several hours later, the music is still incredibly impressive, but my enjoyment of it has been quite strongly dulled by the headache thrumming behind my eyes. Each pulse of the music brings another jolt, and I lean back against the pillar with a groan.

“You right there, fairy boy?” Malon says, nursing the enormous dish of food she procured from somewhere. It’s possible she stole it off someone.

“Eh,” I reach out and steal a piece of the fish off the plate, to her indignation. “Headache, is all,”

Malon studies me with unblinking blue eyes- not sharp and clever like Zelda’s but muddier and warm. 

“Ya been drinkin’ plenty of water?” she asks. “Daddy swears by it to fix up headaches,”

“Not really,” I admit. “There’s pools everywhere but is it weird to drink the water if that’s where all the Zora swim and stuff?”

“Nope,” Malon says. “Go drink some water,”

I drag myself to my feet, pins and needles spiking their way up my legs. I bet the way I’m walking so gingerly looks bizarre, but I really couldn’t care at this stage. I kneel beside one of the pools and cup my hands in an effort to drink. It tastes of moss and rocks, as one might expect from an underground river, but for a split second it tastes of something else, something less drinkable. I almost gag on the taste but before I have a chance to do anything about it the taste is gone again, back to the mossy substance it was before.

That’s...strange. And not okay.

I opt not to keep drinking, sitting back on my haunches and leaning forward, the headache somehow twisting around into my throat. I can’t tell if I need to burp or throw up.

“Link,” someone says behind me, and I open one eye to see Navi. “Headache? Nausea?”

“What gave it away?” I groan.

“Because Zelda’s suffering the exact same thing,” she says. “I think you ought to go to bed, both of you. Daybreak is only a few hours away anyway, it’s far too late to be awake normally, let alone in this state,”

“Alright,” I say, pushing myself slowly upright. “Where’s Zelda?”

Navi points across the mess of dancing Zora and I catch a glimpse of her leaning heavily against a stone pillar, clammy-faced, watching us with wearily lidded eyes. 

“Where’s Malon sitting?” Navi asks me, and I gesture to where the redhead is polishing off the platter solo, a look of intense concentration on her face. Navi flutters over to get her attention and is almost splattered with fish as Malon tries to talk through her mouthful. Eventually she’s persuaded to abandon the now-empty platter and follows Navi. I join them and follow the fairy towards Zelda.

“We should let Ruto know where we’re going,” Zelda says, looking even worse up close, and sounding like she’s got a rock in her throat. She takes a slight step forward, still with a heavy limp thanks to her injury. I vaguely wonder if we should get her a cane or something, then decide that if I could limp along without one after a tree trunk pillar was dropped on me, she can manage.

“I’ll find her, don’t worry,” Navi says, her voice taking on a familiar mother hen tone to it. “You three just head up to the room,”

As we walk, Malon takes it upon herself to fill the silence Zelda and I are leaving.

“Did the two of ya both catch the same bug?” she asks. “Ya both’re lookin’ terrible,”

“Just a headache,” I insist, although I’d say that the croak of the words and the look on my face are evidence enough to contradict me. 

“I have no idea what’s wrong,” Zelda rasps, sounding irritated at her body’s failure to comply to her stupidly high standards. “If it persists, we’ll have to look into it,”

“Straw-head, shaddup,” Malon says as we reach Ruto’s room, nodding to the guard who still has the bag with my sword sticking out the top. “You sleep, hear? Go,” 

She shoves Zelda lightly forward and it sends the blonde stumbling, a testament to how out of it she is and how unresponsive her injured leg is, and she manages to maneuver herself onto the blanket burrow we slept in. She drops onto it heavily, coiling under the blankets with a soft groan. I join her, wrapping myself in blankets to ward off the chill and eternal damp that permeates the air here in the Zora city. Malon flops down beside me, nuzzling her way under the blankets and then reaching over to try and steal mine. Zelda irritatedly seizes the corner and yanks it back into my space.

“You have your own blanket, Malon,” she says flatly. “Don’t be a hog,”

“Nah” Malon says sleepily, “Zora girl’s the hog, remember? Oink,” and promptly closes her eyes. 

Zelda just shakes her head, apparently not surprised by Malon’s antics, and her eyes slide lazily closed and open again, looking at me.

“Stop staring at me like that,” she growls.

“Geez,” I mutter, rolling over. “Don’t pretend to care or anything,”

“Maybe she  _ doesn’t _ care,” Malon chips in, eyes still closed. Zelda raises a hand to give her what must be a Hylian rude hand sign- which is a lot more crass than I’d expect a princess to be- and lowers it.

“I’d care more if I didn’t feel like an Octorok was spitting rocks at my eyeballs from the inside of my head,” she says, closing her eyes. “Believe it or not, I’m not a complete bitch,”

“Ya sure seem like it sometimes, straw-head,” Malon says, and I close my eyes. I don’t want to see Zelda’s response to that.

_ Wind in my face, running cold fingers through my hair to pull it away from my face. A quiver and an ache in my calves, holding me crouched on the back of a crimson bird, wings sweeping down on either side of me to send me and the bird into a banking turn. It sends us looping around past a blue bird that caws cheerily at the sight of us, playfully snapping its beak at our tail plumes, and we laugh as we climb higher and then dive sharply down to evade the mischievous plotting of the other. We soar over an island in the clouds, coloured banners flicking in the wind as if to wave in greeting, and we swoop under a floating lake with our wings brushing the waterfall, droplets of gleaming quicksilver catching us across the face. _

_ Wind whistling around me, funneling through the buildings of the bustling festival marketplace as a girl with long hair and a pretty smile drags me by the hand, stopping only to play games at stalls. She wins a tiny russet-brown shield at a number game, choosing it over the other two prizes even though they glitter a stunning red in the sunlight. She turns and offers the shield to me with a shy smile on her face. _

_ “Now if anything happens, you can protect me with that shield!” she says laughingly, teeth flashing in the sun. _

_ Wind whipping through me as we trace our way through a forest, a girl with red hair pulled back hugging her cloak around her as she leads the way. She brushes leaves out of the path, the trees spaced far enough apart that the raging wind whistles shrilly, feeling even stronger as we go forwards. She offers a reassuring smile as she kicks aside a branch. _

_ “Not too much further, now,” she says firmly, hitching up her skirt. The trees abruptly part into a wide, paved area with moss encroaching on every surface, a pedestal bearing a blade in the centre of the clearing standing out against the eroded atmosphere. “We have arrived,” she says. “That is the sacred blade I spoke of…” _

_ Ice cutting my face as a whirl of black clouds and lightning approaches, far faster than any storm I’ve ever seen or heard of, far too fast for us to even pull back on the halter, let alone avoid it. The blue bird and its rider are torn apart with a screech and a scream, and before we even think about it the red bird and I are diving forward, talons outstretched, trying to grab hold of her somehow, anything. The storm works its hands between the bird and I and tears me free, faster than I can even think, hurling me backwards and away and then I’m falling, falling. The red bird lets out an anguished cry as it rights itself and hurtles towards me but before it reaches me the world goes grey. _

_ Ice in my throat as the champion of the swordplay competition approaches the chest with the shining blade emerging from the top, flicking long hair out of his eyes. The greedy look in them unsettles me, and before I even have a chance to think the guards have picked up on his intent and position themselves protectively before the chest. He gestures and wind hurls them away like paper dolls, and then he shatters the blade like it’s nothing more than spun sugar, the chest bursting open. I recoil at the maelstrom that erupts from it, moving too fast for me to even see, and the blonde girl shrieks and a burst of golden light flares outwards, banishing the creatures. The champion approaches her with a dark look on his face and I don’t even think, darting forwards and raising the tiny shield. It does nothing and I’m thrown to the side, skidding in the grass, and the blonde girl cries out. By the time I manage to lift my head, she’s gone and in her place is a stone statue. The champion dissolves into shadows and the world goes black. _

_ Ice in my heart as the sword twitches in the pedestal and both the girl and I look around, fear rising, and the  wind is broken by her scream. I whirl to see a misshapen mass of shadows beating countless wings, a single red eye staring at me as it laughs. I flinch as the girl kicks and struggles in its grip, demanding to be released- as if this monster will actually listen to her. It stares at her, then at me, and the stare is like a cold wind sweeping through me that freezes me to the spot, any thoughts of fighting or running or  _ anything _ cut down effortlessly and immediately. The creature laughs and that’s less a wind and more a hurricane, and yet my feet still won’t move, fear freezing me in place as the creature tightens its grip around the girl even as she thrashes. The creature swoops at me and the world goes dark. _

_ Fire all around me as my hands shake around the hilt of the blade in my hands. A scaly, rotten-fleshed figure with glowing eyes and blazing hair tightens its hand around its own sword and laughs. A tall, robed figure spreads its arms and flicks its hair back, golden horns catching the light as it sneers. A pulsing shape with a searing red eye flexes golden fingers, stretching its long arms as if it hadn’t a care in the world. All of them flicker interchangeably, the world around us blurring, the only constant the feeling of the cold hilt between my fingers that grows steadily warmer, warmer, hotter. The heat fast becomes unbearable, and as the monster comes closer I do the only thing I can think of and swing the inferno that is tearing apart my hand upwards. I’m not sure which of us is burned more. _

I awake to a decidedly non-Hylian face looming over me and react instinctively, throwing myself backwards in an attempt to flee. Except then there’s water and I wasn’t expecting it, and I choke on a breath consisting entirely of winter-freezing water. I force myself out of the pool and someone grabs me, and my hand flies to my shoulder and closes around empty space.

“Please! Calm yourself!” Rutela says desperately, and it occurs to me that those green eyes didn’t look nearly as friendly a moment ago. The tense, locked-up poise I’m holding flows away unintentionally and I flop into her arms, releasing a long breath that sounds awfully like a sob. When I blink the tears and freezing water out of my eyes I see Malon and Ruto watching us fearfully, and Zelda curled against the wall clutching the hemp pillow protectively. Navi is fluttering beside Rutela, hands in her mouth, clearly worried sick.

“Wh-wh-what was  _ th-that _ ?” I stammer hoarsely, coughing ice water from the depths of my throat.

“Something bad,” she says, sounding just as hoarse. “Something  _ really _ bad,”

Nobody in the room bothers insulting us by telling us that it was just a bad dream. That was  _ not _ just a bad dream. “What did you see?” she asks me, and as if triggered by her words the palm of my left hand burns painfully, the memory-dream-thought of holding that burning sword rushing through me. I lift my hand and study the fresh, livid burns overlaid atop the acid burns left by the beast in the caves. Blisters have formed that weren’t there when I went to sleep, and when I look at Zelda she has scratches and wind-burn across her face, and what looks like the bruise left by an enormous shadowy hand across her throat and disappearing under her neckline. I close my hand and lower it, shaking, into the icy water beside me, letting it soothe the burns that seem to be fading already. I catch Zelda’s eye and she takes a shaky breath.

“I don’t know what that was,” she says before I can ask again. 

“What even happened?” Navi asks, voice warbling with worry. 

“Just a dream,” I answer with a slightly hysterical laugh, and absolutely nobody in the room believes me.

We all know that was more than a dream.


	33. Your Worst Nightmare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The evil king rises again.

**[/]{INTERLUDE-THE GRAVE ROBBER}[\\]**

Their opportunity came only two days after their plans had been made, and not in the way they thought it would.

The grave robber was alerted to their chance by the startled murmurings in the street below them; she lazily rolled towards the edge of the roof to get a look at whatever the fuss was and immediately threw herself backwards as if she had been burned.

“What is it?” Quill asked, sitting up straight. The grave robber was pale and she took a deep breath, opened her mouth to say something- and stopped. The idea could be seen painted on her face clear as day.

“Our chance,” she said. “I hope you don’t mind dressing as a girl,”

“Wait, what?” Quill said in alarm, as the grave robber pulled her shirt up over her head. The Rito squawked in alarm, trying to cover his eyes and turn away at the same time. 

“Our entrance party. To the castle,” she said, tugging a faded-looking white top from her bag and smoothing out the creases before donning it and a pair of pale pink pants, wapping various bits of almost certainly stolen jewellery around her. “I think I have a spare pair of pants here,”

She located the spare set of pants and rolled up the ends, throwing them at Quill. He hesitated before pulling them on under his tunic, grimacing at the poor fit. The grave robber swept her hair back into a high ponytail, securing it with a jewelled clip, and swapped her boots for a pair of pointed slippers. 

“Shirt off,” she instructed Quill, pulling the patterned shirt they had bought from her bag and slicing off a good deal of it, leaving it to fall halfway down his ribcage. He tugged it on and she secured the bottom with a chain pulled from a necklace, stuffing the offcuts of fabric into the shirt to imitate breasts. “Surprise. You’re a girl,” she said, observing him. She leaned forward and tugged on his head feathers- much to his chagrin- pulling them into a short tail and clipping them in place. 

“Ow. I think you snapped some,” he said unhappily, reaching up to feel the clip. She slapped his hand away, returning to the bag and removing the spare fabric, draping it loosely over each of his wings and pinning it on the edges. She secured it at the top and bottom with a bangle on one sleeve, but ran out of bangles on the other and ended up using rope at the bottom.

“That should hide your wings well enough. When we get to the gate, you greet the guard with  _ sav’otta _ , okay?”

“ _ Sav’otta, _ ” Quill repeated doubtfully. 

“Good. And if he asks you why you’re not talking, just point to yourself and say  _ vehvi _ . Nothing else. You keep quiet, hear?”

“ _ Vehvi. _ What about my beak?”

The grave robber muttered and looked in the bag before reaching forward and tugging a little of the cloth out of his makeshift shirt, attaching the square of fabric to a chain removed from a probably expensive stolen amulet she still hadn’t sold yet. She wrapped it over his face like a veil.

“A lot of Gerudo have long noses, so the guard shouldn’t question the shape,” she mused. “The patterns are a bit off, but they’re close enough,”

“Talons?” Quill pointed out. The grave robber swore. 

“I don’t have spare slippers. You’ll have to wear mine,”

“And you go barefoot?”

“Yep,” she said, pulling off her pointed slippers and handing them over. He jammed his talons into them, folding the back one uncomfortably in.

“Ow, ow, ow,” he hissed, leaning forward on his feet. “I can’t walk like this, ow,”

She studied him for a moment, biting a nail in thought, before turning back to her bag and finding the abandoned plaster and bandages from Quill’s wing cast, placing the plaster on his leg and wrapping the bandages around the bulky cast. Quill leaned backwards in surprise only to flinch sharply and lean forwards again. “What are you doing? Ow,”

“I’m going to go ask that doctor for a set of crutches, wait here,” she replied. “You officially broke your leg playing in a canyon. The crutches should help you put weight only on the front of one foot,”

“This is the most elaborate lie I’ve ever told,” Quill said as she went to leave. “We’re going to be caught,”

He got no response as the grave robber vaulted off the building, skipping across rooftops into the distance. With little other option, Quill sat down and  _ waited _ .

She returned a while later with the wooden crutches in hand, handing them to him; he tucked them under his wings carefully. 

“This is a terrible idea,” he said again. “I’m serious. We shouldn’t do this,”

“The Sages say otherwise,” the grave robber responded. “And this sounds a lot like a little thing we like to call  _ destiny _ ,”

“I don’t believe in destiny,” Quill said, but the grave robber was already finishing off her costume.

“Come on,” she said, stashing her bag next to a chimney and clambering down the building. She had to help him down, feet jammed as they were in slippers, and he awkwardly followed after her, swinging on the crutches.

They came to the castle gates and a guard positioned himself in their way before stopping.

“The Gerudo delegation already passed by here,” he said, clearly confused. 

“I am sorry, very sorry,” the grave robber said, and Quill was struck at the sudden heavy accent. “My daughter, she broke her leg? Some time ago, yes. She fell and we were delayed,”

The guard looked suspicious- the grave robber couldn’t blame him, it was his job after all. 

“What are your names?” he asked. The grave robber didn’t even pause.

“Nabooru is my name,” she said. “This is my daughter Avinashi,”

The guard stopped.

“We already had an Avinashi in the delegation,”

Nabooru stopped for a moment before shrugging.

“Is very common name,” she said. “Gerudo historical figure, see?”

The guard looked hard at Quill, who shifted.

“ _ Sav’otta _ ,” he said dutifully.

“She speak any Hylian?” the guard asked, looking up.

“No,” Nabooru shook her head. “She should not have come, but I did not want to leave her behind when she was injured so,”

The guard stared the two of them down for a few agonising moments longer, before planting his spear in the soil.

“We’ll have to conduct a weapons search,”

“Of course,” Nabooru said, a slight note of triumph in her voice. The guard patted her down, and turned to Quill, who had been giving Nabooru an urgent look. Comprehension sparked in her eyes- if the guard patted Quill down in the same way, his birdlike features would be immediately evident. “S-sir, I must protest,” she said hastily. “Gerudo culture does not allow  _ voe _ to touch  _ vehvi, _ ”

“What?” the guard raised an eyebrow.

“You must not touch a young child,” she said. “It is taboo. It is...impure, inappropriate. Has, uh...sexual connotations, for young virgin girl,”

She’d laid it on a bit thick, but the guard jerked away as if burned. 

“I can’t let her enter the castle unless I’m sure she’s not carrying any weaponry,” he said firmly.

“Would it be alright if I did it? You could watch, so that you can see that there are no bulges in her clothing when I flatten them to her skin,”

The guard hesitated.

“Alright,” he conceded eventually. “Be thorough!”

Nabooru immediately began running her hands across the feathers hidden in the large sleeves, squashing them as flat as possible. Quill shifted uncomfortably but stayed put, and eventually the guard nodded.

“Alright,” he said wearily. “You may enter. Do you need a guide to find the rest of the delegation?”

“No, no,” Nabooru assured him. “I will be fine. I know my way. The throne room is easy to find, says the King,”

The guard raised a hand and the gate began to open, and Quill took a deep breath. Valoo’s horns, they’d actually done it. Nabooru strode confidently ahead and Quill swung himself after her, trying to find even purchase on the path up to the castle. 

“Who’s Avinashi?” he asked when they were out of earshot.

“I wasn’t lying,” the woman said. “Avinashi and names derived from it  _ are _ very common Gerudo names. Avinashi is the name of an ancient Gerudo woman who slew an army of monsters that had tried to take the Gerudo city. She became the first queen of the Gerudo and her bloodline remains the royal Gerudo family today, the role passed from mother to daughter. Until a male is born, anyway.”

They reached the castle’s enormous doors and were beckoned inside, and they followed the halls until they were out of sight of the guards.

“Shoes off,” she instructed, “hide the crutches in that alcove. We might need to run if we’re caught. If you need to, lie and say you were cursed by a Kargaroc,” 

“Okay,” Quill said, stripping off the painful slippers and the cast around his leg. Nabooru took the shoes, sliding them onto her feet, while he stashed the plaster and crutches in an alcove behind a statue of some important-looking Hylian. Nabooru started off down the hallways, rapping on the walls, and Quill stuck close behind.

“Why are you hitting the walls?” he asked after a while.

“If we can find a secret passage behind here our journey would be a lot easier,” she said, stopping as she saw a set of stairs going upwards. She started up them. “I’m almost certain that the princess’ room will be in the tower, so we need to keep going upwards,”

“There’s secret passages?” Quill asked in awe, eyes wide. She glanced at him.

“Probably? It’s a royal residence. It’d be remiss of them  _ not _ to include secret passages. What if they need to sneak off in a siege like cowards?”

There were barbs in her voice there.

“That sounds like you’re talking from experience,” he ventured, and she waved a hand as she climbed the steps.

“Old Gerudo tale from the civil war,” she said. “The Gerudo almost had the Hylian queen, but she snuck out of the castle like a goddamn coward and left the palace guards to distract us while she ran. We lost nearly a hundred women in the ambush. The worst part is that the Hylians still tell the story, except it’s the heroic escape of the queen from the clutches of the villainous gypsies,”

“I suppose there’s two sides to any story,” Quill reasons, and Nabooru spins to look at him.

“I’m sorry? Did you just justify the romanticising of the deaths of a hundred Gerudo warriors? It wasn’t even an honourable death! They were slaughtered!”

“O-of course not!” Quill stammered. “Keep your voice down! We’ll be caught!”

Nabooru huffed.

“Can’t say I have much pride in my people, anyway,” she huffed. “Ever since the new king rose to power, it’s been tyranny. There’s a reason I left them. I have more in common with the Hylians than I do with what the Gerudo have become,”

“What’s wrong with the new king?”

“He was a good man for a time,” Nabooru said as they mounted the staircase at the top floor and continued on. “But after a while he became...funny. There’s something wrong with him. He...changed. Started being different. Nobody really noticed anything until he backhanded his bodyguard across the room for suggesting that he not go through with a raid on Natzu- that’s in Labrynna, you probably haven’t been there. It was just...so out of character for him that we all lost it. He assured us it had been an instinctive accident, but we didn’t miss anything after that. The smart ones, like me, ran right then and there. Not many of us did, though. Most of the Gerudo are still trapped under his reign. He leaves most alone unless they have something he wants. If they do...well, may the sand goddess keep their souls.”

Quill hesitated.

“So why are the Gerudo here? Do they want something from the Hylians” he asked. Nabooru’s expression darkened.

“May the sand goddess keep their souls,” she said, and Quill understood.

The Rito almost walked straight past Nabooru when she stopped, and the woman grabbed him and wrenched him back before he was spotted by the duo of passing guards. “Pay more attention!” she hissed, checking to see if the coast was clear. When she was satisfied, she headed into the corridor, bare feet making barely any sound against the carpeted ground. “I think the tower is just through here. Princesses are always in the tower, right?”

“Rito don’t have castles,” Quill deadpanned. “You’re the expert here,”

Nabooru paused to offer him a withering glare, turning the corner.

“Okay, no tower here,” she said, irritated. “We must have missed a corridor. We’ll have to backtrack”

They must have spent at least an hour searching and hiding from guards before her face finally lit up.

“The tower,” she said, all but running towards a spiral staircase behind a set of stained wooden gates. They crept up them slowly, Quill struggling a little but still keeping up, Nabooru’s yellow eyes flicking watchfully above them. She stopped when they reached the top. “It’s unguarded,” she said in surprise, peering through the crack between the two doors that crowned the staircase. “Why is it unguarded?”

Quill didn’t bother answering and it didn’t look like he’d been expected to, as Nabooru opened the door- unlocked?- and moved cautiously inwards. The room was well-lit and large, but Nabooru didn’t take long to notice the thick layer of dust coating the furniture.

“What’s going on? Do we have the wrong room?” the Rito asked. Nabooru opened a closet and blinked at the regal dresses inside.

“No, this is definitely the right room,” she said, “and you’d hope so, after how long we spent looking for it. The thing is, where’s the princess?”

Nabooru kept moving, but Quill’s gaze was locked on something outside the window.

“We should have stayed away from these windows,” he blurted when he’d unfrozen. Nabooru’s head whipped up to see a guard on the battlements opposite, pointing at them and shouting to someone a lot closer. Apparently once the guards knew there was an intruder they were as fast as lightning, because the shouts were already ringing up to them from the bottom of the staircase. Nabooru’s eyes were wide, and she spun and threw the heavy book in her hand through the window. The glass shattered loudly, shards raining down, and the woman all but grabbed Quill and shoved him forwards.

“Go!” she shouted, and Quill squawked in surprise before tearing the sleeves and bangles free and hurling himself out through the window into the open air, feathers flared to catch any semblance of a breeze that he could. Nabooru looked behind her fearfully, hearing the footsteps coming up the stairs. No escape that way. She ran to the shattered window, looking down. The tower was far too high for her to jump, unless she wanted to test Mudora’s theory a little early, and too smooth to climb. But she was a wanted thief  _ and _ a Gerudo, and there was no way she could let herself be caught here. If she was thrown in those dungeons she’d never come back out. 

The door slammed open and a man in crimson armour burst into the room, a spear in his hand; Nabooru reacted entirely on instinct and leaped out of the window.

_ Well, that was stupid! _ she mentally shrieked at herself a split-second after she’d done it, but her fall didn’t even last a moment before the man had reached her, impossibly fast, and grabbed her by the arm. She cried out as she felt it dislocate hard, tears springing unbidden to her eyes as she was dragged back into the tower. As soon as she was back inside the window she lifted one still-bare foot and slammed it into the armoured man’s torso; clearly not expecting it, he shot out of the window with a yelp, and Nabooru staggered to her feet, clutching her injured arm protectively as she sprinted down the stairs. The only thought on her mind was an escape route, and her eyes darted like a caged animal as she fled. All of her weapons were under a chimney in Castle Town, and she didn’t have so much as a boot to kick with. She briefly considered the idea of using her necklace as a garotte, but she didn’t have time to stop and put her shoulder back in the spot where it actually belonged and a garotte wouldn’t work one-handed. She reached the end of the corridor just as a shout echoed from behind her.

“You are trespassing in the domain of the King of Hyrule!” it thundered. “Cease now or face my spear!”

She glanced back and somehow, unbelievably, it was the red-armoured man, the one she’d kicked off the top of the tower. She didn’t stop to ponder how he had gotten back to the top of the tower before fleeing around the corner, doing her best to retrace her steps. She tripped on her way down the flight of stairs, crying out as she slammed hard into the wall at the bottom, but picked herself up again and kept running. A guard caught her at the base of the stairs on the ground floor and she grabbed the grille of his helmet with her good hand and ripped off the helmet as hard as she could, then swung the headgear into the man’s face. He went down with a yowl of pain and the telltale crunch of a nose breaking, and Nabooru kept running. The entire castle was alive with shouts and the thump of armoured footsteps now; there was no hope of finding the princess now. The king, queen, princess and whoever else was important would have been whisked into a safe place; the diplomatic talks would have been called to a halt and the Gerudo delegation ejected from the palace. She needed to escape, and now, but she couldn’t risk running straight into the delegation either. She skidded to a halt when she heard footsteps ahead of her, and pressed herself into an alcove, praying that she’d go unnoticed; her prayers went unanswered as the guard found her and grabbed her bad arm. Lances of pain shot up through her shoulder and her eyes watered as she lunged for the guard’s helmet, attempting to dispatch him in the same way she’d defeated the other guard, but no no avail. The guard had her pinned to the wall before she could even try and come up with a plan B, and so she reacted instinctively, grabbing his spear and wrenching as hard as she could. For a few moments it turned into an impromptu game of tug as both parties tried to wrest the spear from the other; Nabooru was clearly losing, with just one arm at her disposal, so she decided to play dirty, rearing back on one foot and then kicking as hard as she could at the man’s elbows with the heel of her foot. 

It  _ hurt _ , a  _ lot, _ and she swore sharply even as the man instinctively let go of the spear. Immediately she whipped it around and stabbed at him; her aim was awful and the point skated across his armour uselessly. A second thrust was no better, and the guard had regained his confidence by the time Nabooru abruptly pivoted and slammed the base of the spear into his neck. He went down and Nabooru didn’t stop to see if he was still conscious, fleeing down the corridor with her spear in her grasp. She was almost there, she knew where she was now. Just one more corridor until the exit! Her breath came in sharp, pained gasps and her arm was alight with that particular fire that came with torn ligaments, but she kept running as fast as she could.

And then she stopped dead. Directly ahead of her, leaving through the main entrance, was the Gerudo delegation, and she wasn’t fast enough to escape their notice. She recognised her old commander, Ranya, among the women; Ranya let out a shout and the king turned and Nabooru was pinned in place by those furious yellow eyes. She stumbled backwards, not even realising she had dropped her spear as she turned and fled, heart pounding. She was sure she was being pursued, not even daring to look behind her, and the thumping drumbeat in her ears stopped when she ran directly into someone. Cold flooded her body when she recognised the Gerudo king standing right in front of her. Surely not. He had been behind her. She instinctively threw a look over her shoulder and her moment of hesitation was enough to welcome something pressing against her ribs. She turned back to face the king, looking at the taller man with terror in her eyes; his smile widened and he yanked something from her chest. She looked down and it was only when she saw the blood spilling down her front that she realised what had happened, and her breath froze in her lungs even as her mind kicked into overdrive, spitting broken instructions that she was in no condition to follow. She was on the ground before she knew it, her head and shoulders hitting a wall while her back slumped to the ground. Nabooru looked up again and quailed under the leer of the Gerudo king, his grin wide and sickening, the curved knife still dripping in his hand.

“You thought you could desert me?” Ganondorf tilted his head, his cruel grin sharp against his dark flesh, even as his image started fragmenting and dissolving to motes of grayish magic, drifting to the floor. Nabooru watched one spiral downwards like a dandelion, drifting gently in the stale air of the hallways. She thought she could feel heavy footsteps rattling the ground she lay on, but nothing reached her ears, her senses drowned out by the mind-numbing pain bursting from the stab wound. 

And then everything burst into orange light.

**[/]{END OF INTERLUDE}[\\]**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey there! This story was moved over from Fanfiction.net and should update once a week, on whatever-day-this-is-for-you. Leave a review or a kudos if you like it, and don't be afraid to let me know if you want to see something in this fic!


	34. The Improper Use of Wooden Weaponry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rutela turns out to be badass, and Malon is not as good at fighting as she thought she was.

 

We wake again the next morning without the fanfare from the night before, but it hasn’t been forgotten. I roll over and Rutela sits up from the chair she’d dragged in, reaching for a small pot she’d set down on the sideboard. She beckons me over and I ease myself out of the blankets, only to realise that Malon is already awake. She follows me out of the blankets.

“You feelin’ better?” she asks loudly, and Rutela hurriedly shushes her. Navi, Ruto and Zelda are still asleep, as is Ralis, snoozing in his sister’s bed where Rutela tucked him in after Zelda and I woke pretty much everyone in the area.

“Yeah,” I murmur back, and Rutela holds out a cup of warm liquid poured from the pot and a plate of a whole round pie, steam rising gently off it.

“Ceiili tea,” the Zora says, leaning forward. The cup is full of a slightly greenish-brown liquid, warm to the touch. “It’s very calming. And I made a cinnamon pie as well,”

I take the cup and sip it, while Malon eyes it.

“How d’ya know?”

“That it’s calming?” Rutela frowns.

“Yeah,”

“Experience, mostly. I drink a lot of ceiili tea myself. Would you like some?”

“Yes please,” Malon chirps, and Rutela pours her a cup as well. The redhead sniffs at it before all but chugging it, and Rutela rolls her eyes and refills the cup. I sit down and drink the sweet tea slowly, only pausing to eat the slice of cinnamon pie I’m handed. I end up leaning against the side of Rutela’s chair and closing my eyes. It’s been a long week.

I almost don’t notice it when Rutela starts carding her hands through my hair, and for a moment I consider shifting out of the way, but...it’s more calming than the tea, if I’m honest. The tentative touch becomes more confident when I don’t push her hand away, and I just keep leaning against her chair. It’s only when Malon’s drifted back to sleep again, lulled by the excess tea she drank, that the taller Zora speaks.

“You’re too young for this, you know,” she says quietly, and I twist around to look up at her. Her green eyes have a faraway look to them, staring off at the ripple-patterned walls and looking right through them. “You’re just children. It’s not right for you to have to do the things the hero has to do,”

I don’t answer, unsure if there’s anything to say. She sighs.

“You don’t have to, you know,” she goes on eventually. “If the goddesses will it, another will rise to take on whatever task you’ve had forced on you. You still have a choice,”

Whether it’s her gentle voice, the calming tea or the smell of the cinnamon pie lingering in the room, I almost want to take her up on her offer. 

“Nobody else is going to save the forest,” I say when the silence is getting too long. I hate the way my voice rasps at the beginning. “It’s me or nobody,”

“Surely not,” Rutela insists. “The goddesses would not have a child be their only defense. The pressure is too much for someone as young as you,”

I don’t bother arguing. The problem is, I agree with her, but that doesn’t mean that I can act on that opinion. Waiting for someone else to do it could be the worst thing I could possibly do.

Rutela seems to get the gist after a while and just lets out a long sigh.

“I wouldn’t have listened to me either,” she confesses. “You’re set in your path, hmm?” I nod, and she gives a slight smile. “I guess that’s that. Are you sure you know what you’re doing, though? The legendary hero has to deal with some nasty things,”

“Zelda taught me how to fight,” I point out, “and I’ve already killed two big monsters and a few smaller ones,”

Rutela’s gaze tracks across to the sleeping Zelda with a look of incredulity.

“Your only training came from the princess?” she says, a note of horror in her voice.

“Um,” I try, wrong-footed, “...yes?”

The Zora makes a disapproving noise. “That’s just not enough,” she says. “I’ve seen Zora make mistakes with more training than that, and they’ve never had to battle incarnations of pure evil,”

I shrug. “It was the best we could do in a forest with nothing to train against in it,”

Rutela stands up. “Come with me,” 

I follow her to the door, where she turns to one of the guards. “ _ Nanaphys Tijapa, tara neridu Link isumer naranda maroi inyura rmes na deh? _ ”

“ _ Pa, cei na deh, _ ” the guard nods.

“What’s happening?” I ask, given that I don’t speak Zoran.

“Oh, sorry,” Rutela apologises. “Tijapa doesn’t know any Hylian. I asked him to take you to the training ground,”

“Why?” I hesitate.

“To see if we can give you a few more lessons before you leave,” the Zora says. “It’s worth an attempt, no?”

Tijapa is gesturing for me to follow, and I take a step. “I’ll wait here for Zelda to wake up,” Rutela nods. “Do enjoy yourself,”

“Thank you,” I say, following after the Zora guard. He leads me down several corridors into a wide open area already filled with a few sparring Zora, some armed with wooden sticks and others with genuine weapons. Tijapa calls to another Zora I recognise- it’s that one the king was ogling the other day in the throne room, one of the only Zora who’s not obscenely tall.

“Soduru!” Tijapa calls. “ _ Marudonda, terapharu isimara tanaridu, hyli-yan-pha manaridu kadaratu phani na deh? _ ”

“ _ Pa, pa, _ ” Soduru says, joining us. “ _ Cei na deh _ . You speak Hylian, yes?”

“Y-yeah,” I stammer, not expecting him to address me. Tijapa leaves as Soduru gestures me over to a rack of sticks. 

“What do you fight with?”

“A sword, and a shield,” 

“How long?” He moves his fingertips apart, gesturing lengths; I hold my hands out a little over a foot, and Soduru plucks a sturdy, wrapped wooden sword from the shelf and holds it out handle-first. I take the wooden sword and he leaves me to choose my own shield from the rack as he muses between a spear and a longsword; he ends up choosing the spear as I hoist the shield that’s closest to the one I normally use. “Ready?”

“Yep,” I reply, raising my shield. Immediately Soduru is on me, the haft of the spear jerking my shield away and the blade whipping around to rest on the side of my neck.

“Want to change your answer?” he asks with a fanged grin, and I scowl, shrugging my shoulder to nudge off the blade. He flips the spear back around and returns to the position he started in, the spear resting casually on the ground.

“Okay, for real this time,” I say stubbornly, gripping the wooden sword hard and ready to dodge out of the path of his weapon, maybe strike him from behind, and- goddesses  _ damn _ it! Dodging has exactly no effect because he’s already prepared for it somehow, and I manage to dodge my way right into the path of a blow that wouldn’t have hit me otherwise. 

“Just keep trying,” he reassures me, going back to standard and leaping forward when I have my shield raised. I try to duck out of the way of the strike as it makes the air hiss, raising my shield to deflect a second blow should it come, trying to get in closer to his side, and then there’s the haft of a spear slamming into my ribs and sending me sprawling across the stone ground.

“Again!”

“How are you doing that?” I growl as I stand up.

“You’re sloping your shoulders and hips in the direction you’re about to dodge in,” he points out. “Tells me right away what you’re doing. It’s probably a subconscious thing- everyone does it, you’re preparing for the sharp movement so it doesn’t jarr anything. But it’s a very clearly worded signpost to anyone who knows what to look for,”

I raise my shield again and this time deliberately point myself as if I’m going to leap left; when Soduru attacks- going for the right, because he’s not stupid and probably guessed that I was going to trick him this time- I swing my sword upwards and stay exactly where I am. The sword connects with his jaw and he staggers, and I duck under my shield and charge forward as he backs away, wooden sword dancing from side to side as I rap it across his ribs. He divests me of my shield with a well-timed jerk of the spear and goes in for a strike to my chest; I swing my sword downwards to block the blow and then get a heel to the face when Soduru pivots onto his back leg and swings his foot to meet my jaw. I’m knocked forwards and drop my sword.

“Well done,” he says happily, “but don’t forget that someone’s weapon isn’t the only thing they can fight with, hmm?”

“Sorry,” I mutter, rubbing my jaw and trying to stretch it out. The Zora winces.

“Sorry, I probably was a bit rough there,” he apologises. “We’ll get that healed later,”

“Can I try again?”

* * *

 

Rutela joins us some time later, a sleepy group following after her. Malon immediately plants herself in the corner and goes back to sleep, but the others wander over to us. 

“How are you doing?” Rutela asks.

“He’s improving, your majesty,” Soduru bows respectfully. Rutela gives him an odd look for a few moments.

“Have at it then, Soduru,” she says suddenly, reaching out and pulling a spear from the rack. Soduru blinks.

“Your majesty?” 

Rutela plants the butt of the spear against the ground and smiles a fanged smile at the smaller Zora. 

“I’ve got to check in on my men every now and then, don’t I?” she asks sweetly, and I get the hell off their battlefield, backing over to where Ruto is sniggering with a hand over her mouth, Zelda looks attentive and Navi is still half-asleep.

“Ooooh, she’s gonna kick his butt,” Ruto hisses delightedly.

“Why?” I ask. “I’m lost,”

“Dad keeps eyeing up Soduru and it makes Rutela so mad,” the young Zora giggles. “She’s gonna beat him up!”

“How did Rutela learn to fight?” Zelda asks interestedly, watching as the queen stabs forward with the wooden spear, striking Soduru in the gut and sending him sprawling. No sooner has he gotten up than Rutela’s on him again, and he’s definitely on the frantic defensive as he tries to block her strikes with his own spear.

“She was a general in our army before she married dad,” Ruto shrugs. “Fought against Ikana in the war. She knows what she’s doing,”

The queen is a blurring flurry of slashes now, and I can’t help but stare at her and Soduru. It’s a whirlwind of strikes, Soduru spinning his spear faster than I can track to block her attacks, forced to backpedal hard under the onslaught. Rutela’s weapon never stops moving, slashing and stabbing at every opening, the Zora queen pressing ever onwards. 

“Your majesty!” he tries to plead, and the Zora queen’s green eyes gleam.

“If I was a River Zora I wouldn’t stop!” she crows, and easily dodges a swipe from Soduru’s spear that might well have cut her in half, if the spear was actually metal and if the blade had actually connected. She grabs the spear as it sails past, yanking it towards her; Soduru doesn’t let go of his weapon and as a consequence is yanked forwards to recieve Rutela’s bare fist to the jaw and then a knee to the chest. He staggers backwards, wresting his spear from her grip, but he’s barely a time to rest before Rutela is on him again, the wooden spear singing against the air as she slashes again and again.

Their battle is drawn to a stop in a split second; Rutela’s spear comes down towards Soduru, who raises his own in front of him in two hands to block the strike. It shatters on impact, Rutela’s spear bouncing away, and Soduru doesn’t even have time to widen his eyes at the two halves of the spear in his hands before Rutela has swiftly lifted her foot and kicked Soduru in the sternum, with enough force to send him flying backwards. He skids along the ground for a few metres before stopping himself, panting, shaking and out of breath.

“Well done,” Rutela says, throwing her spear to the ground; the wood is twisted and warped, broken under the force of her attacks. “Also, you’re banned from the throne room save for emergencies. In fact, you’re banned from any location containing my husband save for emergencies. Do you understand?”

Soduru wheezes.

“That was  _ amazing, _ ” Malon’s awe-struck voice echoes from the corner- apparently she wasn’t asleep- and Rutela offers a serene smile that is strikingly at odds with the performance she just gave. 

“Thank you,” Rutela says, bowing neatly at the waist. 

“How do you move that fast?” I ask, for once completely unashamed of the admiration in my voice.

“Practice. Many, many years of it. It takes quite some time to gain the familiarity needed with your own movement to be able to use it to its full potential. A growing child has disadvantages, unfortunately. As soon as you believe you might be getting there, you hit a growth spurt and have to start all over again,”

“This is why I prefer magic,” Zelda mutters. “Never have to worry about your magic changing for such silly reasons,” I turn to raise an eyebrow at her and Navi yelps.

“What happened to your face?” she whines, whizzing over to inspect it. I belatedly remember Soduru kicking me in the jaw.

“Oh, just a bit of training. Nothing bad,”

She apparently knows me too well to believe that, fixing Soduru with a withering glare before tapping her wings together and shaking wing dust over the bruise. 

“Thanks,” I mutter grudgingly as the stiffness in my jaw abates somewhat.

“Zelda could probably do better,” Navi isn’t subtle about her grumpy jealousy. “She’s better with things that aren’t cuts or grazes than I am,”

“Don’t bother,” I gesture as Zelda goes to move closer. “Seriously, it’s fine. Just because I’ve got access to stronger healing magic doesn’t mean we have to heal everything. I do still have my own chops, you know,”

“For sure,” Zelda says lightly, and I refuse to acknowledge the swooping feeling at her lack of faith.

“At the risk of breaking up the party here,” Navi says after a while, watching Rutela clear up the mess of splinters she made of Soduru’s spear, “don’t we have something to be doing?”

Another swooping feeling, this one of guilt. Goddesses  _ damn _ it, I forgot about Saria and the others  _ again. _ This keeps happening. Why does this keep happening? Am I just that much of a jerk that I can’t keep it in mind?

“Don’t,” Zelda points at me immediately, and I go crosseyed keeping her hand in view. How’d she know? Is she psychic too?

“Hey, can I try?” Malon asks, getting to her feet and skipping up to Rutela. Rutela stares at her.

“Malon, no,” Navi whines. Malon gives a mischievous smile.

“Malon  _ yes _ ,” she offers back, and Rutela seems to finally process what Malon asked.

“Um,” she says, except Malon has already grabbed a wooden hammer from the shelf and skipped to the middle of the arena. Soduru scrapes himself up off the ground and all but cowers in the corner Malon vacated, watching with wide eyes as this midget Hylian challenges the towering Rutela to a fight. Rutela looks at us as if looking for backup, and Zelda just shrugs helplessly. “I don’t think that’s wise, dear,”

“Wisdom’s for pansies,” Malon drawls eloquently, lifting the hammer. Rutela blinks before putting her spear back on the rack, swapping it for a new one that doesn’t look like it’s been chewed on by several Wolfos. 

“If you insist,” Rutela says, then swings the spear forward. It’s a lot less violent than with Soduru, but it’s still faster than Malon had anticipated, and it knocks her to the ground. Not one to be deterred so easily, Malon rolls to her feet immediately with an ease that it takes me a moment to figure out- the metaphor of getting back on the horse probably isn’t a metaphor with the farm girl. She takes a swing with the hammer, which Rutela easily avoids, dipping neatly to one side. Malon whirls around and tries again, only to get an almost delicate rap on the knuckles from the flat of Rutela’s spear.

“Stop goin’ easy on me,” snaps Malon, and Rutela shrugs almost absently.

“If you insist,” she says again, then abruptly pivots and kicks Malon hard in the gut. Malon goes down like a falling tree.

The hammer bounces away, but its wielder surprises absolutely everyone by grabbing Rutela’s spear and yanking it hard out of her hands. The Zora looks  _ floored _ \- she’d clearly thought the battle was over- and grabs her spear back when Malon swings it at her, the girl standing up with the motion with a wince at the movement of her injured legs. For a brief moment it’s a tug-of-war between the two fighters, before Rutela proves to be far stronger and tears the weapon from Malon’s grip. The redhead ducks the next swipe but takes a punch to the chest that all but flips her over backwards, landing her hard on her back. Not ready to make the same mistake a second time, Rutela plants the blunted head of her wooden spear on Malon’s chest.

“You’re done,” she tells the Hylian firmly, and Malon pouts.

“Aw,” she says. Rutela’s face softens.

“That was very impressive, though,” she adds. “I wasn’t expecting you to take my spear,”

“Woulda been cooler if I coulda hit ya with it,” Malon grouses. Rutela removes her spear and Malon tries to grab it again; the Zora just moves it out of the way and tilts her head at Malon. “Worth a try,” the redhead shrugs, clambering to her feet. “Ooh, that’s gonna bruise somethin’ pretty,” she says, poking where Rutela kicked her. The queen winces, moving forward. 

“I can have that healed,” she offers, but Malon hunches forward protectively.

“No way!” she beams. “I fought the Zora queen! Daddy will never believe me,”

“Talon is going to kill us,” Zelda says airily, sounding a touch hysterical. I don’t blame her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gah, I know this took forever. Yada yada, the same excuses you hear from pretty much everyone go here lol. I do have a plan going forward, though, I'm not giving up on the story. Thanks for reading!


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